What looked like a promising day for the Israeli delegation at the Sydney Olympics ended disastrously when mistral sailboarder Michal Hein was disqualified from her sixth race yesterday.
The disqualification came late last night after American Lanee Butler, who herself was disqualified in the first race, filed a protest against nine other competitors, claiming they had sailed outside of the exclusion zone which marks the race course boundary. France's Lise Vidal and Hein were disqualified by the International Jury. The case against all the other sailors was dismissed.
The disqualification will hamper Hein's chances of securing a medal, or even a Top 5 finish, despite five races still remaining in the mistral event. According to Olympics rules, each sailboarder can discard theworst result after five races. After nine races, each competitor discards the two worst. The winner has the lowest accumulated score at the end of the series.
Hein is currently in 15th place with 98 points, in comparison to Amelie Lux, of Germany, who is leading the event with 11 points.
In the men's mistral sailboarding event, Amit Inbar had some impressive moves on the water yesterday, but still dropped in the overall standings from fourth to eighth place. There are still five races to go.
Eli Zukerman and Elad Ronen also had a good start in their sailing event yesterday giving Israeli sports fans a window of hope for a medal. The men's double-handed dinghy 470 duo finished in third place after the first race, but by the end of the day fell to sixth out of 29. Their competition continues today.
Shani Kedmi and Anat Fabri kant, meantime, are in eleventh place in the women's double-handed dinghy 470 after two races. This is a disappointing result for the pair, touted as medal hopefuls after fourth-place finishes at both the European and World Championships in 1999. They continue today.
Yoav Gat, who was viewed by local media as the Israeli most likely to win a swimming medal, couldn't keep his head above the water in yesterday's competitions either.
Gat started the day on a positive note by making it past the heats and into the 200 meter backstroke semifinals with a time of 2:00.80. But he clocked a weak time of 2:03.80 minutes in the semifinals and wound up in 16th place. By comparison, Lenny Krayzelburg and Aaron Piersol of the US - the two top finishers in the semifinal races - timed 1:57.27 and 1:58.44 respectively. Italy's Emanuele Merisi, who secured the final berth in the finals, finished in 1:59.78.
Despite all the hype before the Israeli swimmers set out to Australia, Eitan Orbach's eighth-place finish in the men's 100m. backstroke finals on Monday is the team's top placing so far.
Still, Gat said he was not upset. "I'm not disappointed," he told Achla Web site after the race. "Though, I did expect I would do better."
"After the first 100m., I felt tired," Gat told Channel 1. "I felt fine in the water, but when I tried to change my pace, my muscles were awfully tired."
Gat's strategy was to swim fast in the first 100m. and again in the final stretch.
"He opened too fast," said coach Leonid Kaufman. "Our plan didn't work, and he couldn't keep up in the second half of the race. We have to check into why his muscles tightened up."
In 1999, Gat narrowly missed out on a medal, finishing fourth in the European championships. He collected a bronze medal in the 200m. backstroke final in the European swimming championships in Helsinki in July and set two national records in the process. He has no more races at these Olympics.
Micky Halika, 21, the other Israeli swimmer in yesterday's competitions, finished a disappointing 39 out of 56 in the 200m. individual medley heats.
At a press conference in Sydney yesterday, Israel Olym pic Com mittee officials told the press that Israel's level of swimming has never been better. But according to Channel 1, the athletes themselves aren't as happy with their results. Channel 1's commentators added that the swimmers are disappointed that they only made one final.
As for who will swim in the 4x100m. medley tomorrow, coaches Kaufman and Leonid Shachit have yet to decide. They said Tal Stricker, Orbach, and Yoav Meiri will definitely take part, but that they still have to pick among Yoav Bruck, Oren Azrad and Alexei Manziula.
In the women's judo 70-kg. competition yesterday, Israeli Daniela Yael Krukower, who failed to meet the IOC criterion and instead is representing Argentina in the Games, outsmarted Guinea's Mariama Sonah Bah in the first round.
Krukower's advancement to the second round is ironically the best judo result for an Israeli at the Games. In the second round, however, Krukower was beaten by England's Kate Howey who went on to take the silver medal in the event. Cuba's Sibelis Veranes took the gold.
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