Disputed call ends Ze'evi's bronze bid
By Viva Sarah Press
(September 22) - While Israel's delegation to the Sydney Olympics has posted one disappointment after the next, yesterday's bronze medal judo match between Ariel Ze'evi and France's Stephane Traineau was the greatest letdown of them all.
Ze'evi's bid for the bronze in the men's 100kg. division - which would have been Israel's first medal of these Games - ended on a disputed call.
Showing his power and skill, Ze'evi was in control for most of his match with Traineau. During one move, however, the Frenchman turned on Ze'evi and pinned him long enough to score an ippon - judo's equivalent of a knockout.
While Traineau's throw may have been a worthy ippon, it apparently took place out of bounds. After the Frenchman was awarded the point, the judges reconsidered and ruled it was no good - thus forcing the match to continue.
While the French coach was throwing his arms up in a rage, the judges reverted to their first call, and Ze'evi was out.
"That definitely took place out of bounds," said judoka Orit Bar-On, who joined Channel 1's commentating team for Ze'evi's match.
"They robbed us of a medal," coach Alex Ashkenazi, told the Israel Olympic Committee's Web site after the match. "The head judge ruled that they were out of bounds, and he told [Ze'evi] to ask for a time out... but the line judges decided they were inside the red line, and that's how [Traineau] was awarded an ippon."
Ze'evi, who broke down in tears upon hearing he had lost, had been leading the field in points after beating Poland's Pawel Nastula, Hungary's Antal Kovacs, and Brazil's Mario Sabino Jr. in the rounds leading up to his final match.
Despite the loss, Ze'evi had a super day yesterday and his fifth-place finish - out of a field of 33 judokas - is Israel's best result in Australia so far. The only other match Ze'evi lost was his quarterfinal round to Japan's Kosei Inoue, who went on to win the gold.
In a less-than-perfect day for the national team, sailors Anat Fabrikant and Shani Kedmi's performances were praiseworthy.
Honors on the second day of racing for the 470 women's sailing event belonged to Israel and New Zealand. Kedmi and Fabrikant took the lead in the third race yesterday, moving from 11th to fourth place. However, the duo got into some trouble in race four, and wound up in eighth overall.
New Zealanders Melinda Henshaw and Jenny Egnot won race four, lifting them into second place overall after three good races. Germany is in first overall after four races with 20 points, New Zealand in second with 23 points and the US in third with 25 points. Israel has 35 points.
With seven races to go, Kedmi and Fabrikant are in good standing.
After five races in Olympics sailing events, each team can discard its worst result. After nine races, each team discards the two worst. The winner has the lowest accumulated score at the end of the series.
Day 2 of the men's double-handed dinghy 470 races was an exciting one for most of the 29 teams, yet a disappointing day for Israel. After finishing sixth in the first two of 11 races on Wednesday, Eli Zukerman and Elad Ronen looked like they were in good form. But they were off course in yesterday's races, finishing in 14th place overall with 57 points.
The Portuguese crew of Alvaro Marinho and Miguel Nunes lead the fleet with 18 points.
Race three was won by Russians Dmitri Berezkine and Mikhail Kroutikov, who stole first place on the final leg from the Portuguese. The British crew of Nicholas Rogers and Joe Glanfield dominated race four, and are in third overall.
Michal Hein's chances for a medal are no longer a reality, despite the sailboarder's super job on the water in race seven yesterday. Hein finished seventh in that race, but logged 13th in the eighth race. She is in 14th place overall, with three races to go.
Amit Inbar, Israel's competitor in the men's mistral event and thought to be a medal contender, is also fading away from the podium. Despite a good start in the first races, Inbar now sits in 11th place with just four races to go.
Other athletes who flailed in the water yesterday include swimmers Yoav Bruck, Adi Bichman and Yoav Meiri. None of them made it past the preliminaries.
Bruck finished 34th in the 50m. freestyle event with a time of 23.21 seconds. This was a huge letdown, since Bruck was tagged by delegation coaches to make it at least to the semifinals.
In yet another dismal outing, Bichman finished second to last in the 800m. freestyle race - deemed her "strong" event. She clocked 9:09.90 minutes, far from the national record she set at the European championships in July, where she finished in a time of 8:47.98.
Brooke Bennett of the US had the best qualifying time of 8:26.47. Hua Chen of China secured the last spot for the finals with a time of 8:33.23.
And Meiri, who competed in the 100m. butterfly heats, timed a slow 55:37 finish, ending in 37th out of a field of 61. Australia's Michael Klim had the best preliminary time at 52.73 seconds, and his teammate Geoff Huegill had the best semifinal finish at 51.96 - a new Olympics record.
Bichman has finished her run at the Olympics, while Bruck and Meiri will join Tal Stricker and Eitan Orbach for one last splash as they compete in the 4x100m. medley today.
While Israel's Olympians left for Australia with much hope, the word - disappointment - has steadily become the athletes' unwelcome mantra during the last six days of competition. Shooter Guy Starik fell into the "disappointed" category yesterday, after he failed to shoot his way through the preliminary round in the 50m. prone rifle event. Starik had placed fourth at the 1998 World Championships in this competition.
Starik scored 592 points out of 600 yesterday, landing him in 25th place out of 55 shooters. Sweden's Jonas Edman had 599 points in the qualifying round, and ended with a score of 701.3 to take the gold.
The final competitor for Israel yesterday was fencer Ayelet Ohayon who won her first match in the women's individual foil event when she beat France's Adeline Wuilleme 15-12. In the next round, she lost by the same score to Italy's Diana Bianchedi. The Italian team's Valentina Vezzali went on to take the gold.
While the water sports continue today, the dry folk begin to take to the field in their events as well. Watch out for high jumper Constantin Matusevich and sprinter Tommy Kafri today.
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