Matusevich set for high jump final
By Viva Sarah Press
Constantin Matusevich has a very good chance of winning Israel's first medal of the Sydney Olympics today.
The 29-year-old high jumper is tied for first place with three others after Friday's qualifying round.
Matusevich, who captured gold at the 30th Rieti (Italy) Grand Prix track meet earlier this month, was the only one of the four who did not get a bye on the first jump at 2.15 meters. He easily cleared it on his first try.
Sweden's Stefan Holm, Russia's Vyacheslav Voronin, Germany's Wolfgang Kreissig, and Matusevich all had clean first jumps at 2.20m., 2.24m., and 2.27m. in qualifying for today's final. Matusevich will jump third in a field of 13 finalists at 10 a.m. Israel time today.
Matusevich, who looked very composed during his jumps on Friday, is ranked second in the world behind Voronin. His personal best jump is 2.36m., which he achieved in January.
While his competition is tough, Matusevich won't have to go head-to-head with defending Olympic high jump champion Charles Austin. The American failed to make the final after managing only 2.20m. in the qualifying round.
Austin, who took gold in Atlanta with a leap of 2.39m., failed once at 2.24 and then twice at 2.27.
While the Israeli team had more to be disappointed about over the weekend, sailors Shani Kedmi and Anat Fabrikant joined Matusevich in giving the faithful one more uplifting performance to talk about.
The duo moved into fourth place in the women's 470 fleet races on Friday. They have 28 points after six races.
Ukrainians Ruslana Taran and Olena Pakholchyk, who are currently in first place, have 21 points.
The 38 women who are racing the double-handed 470 class boats have been drawing huge crowds on the shores of Sydney Harbor as the competition is cutthroat with no single crew dominating the fleet.
With five more races, Fabrikant - a political science and Middle Eastern history student at Tel Aviv University - and Kedmi - an economics student at the Open University - have a chance of hearing the national anthem up on the podium.
And here ends the good news.
Third-time Olympian and captain of the delegation, Rogel Nahum did not fare well in the triple jump qualifying rounds. He leapt a weak 16.39m., finishing in 23rd out of 40 in yesterday's competition.
Briton Jonathan Edwards, with whom Nahum trained before the Games, secured fourth place with a jump of 17.08. The best leap went to Onochie Achike, Edwards's teammate, who jumped 17.30.
Nahum, 33, told The Jerusalem Post before he set out to Australia that these Olympics will mark the end of his career as a triple jumper.
He said he was hoping to make the finals - which he failed to do in 1992 and '96.
"My main goal is to first qualify for the final," said Nahum, whose best jump of 17.2m. is the national record.
As for his future, he said coaching the sport is not likely. "There are a few ways I may go," he said. "I'm working for the Maccabi Health Fund... and I may go for a promotion in sports. I don't know."
Sprinter Tommy Kafri also failed to impress in his event. While Kafri had no chance of beating the eventual gold-medal winner Maurice Greene in the 100m., he - and his coaches - expected him to make it past round one.
Kafri ran the distance in 10.43 seconds, a far cry from his personal best of 10.23.
He finished fourth in his heat on Friday (where only the top three in each heat advanced), and 38th out of 95 contenders. Yesterday, Greene became the fastest man when he timed 9.87.
Meantime, Israel's swimmers Yoav Bruck, Eitan Orbach, Yoav Meiri, and Tal Stricker were left in the wake during Friday's 4x100m. medley relay heats. The four sabras clocked a time of 3:43.39 minutes, putting them 17th of 23 teams.
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