Aug. 15, 2004
Kravchenko beats European table tennis champ
Frankie Sachs

Marina Kravchenko knocked off the European table tennis champion, Gal Friedman put himself in the medal pack in the Mistral sailing event, and Udi Gal & Gidi Kliger bounced back from a poor opening day to climb from 18th overall to seventh place after four races in the 470 class windsurfing on the second day of action at the Olympics.

But the story of the day was without a doubt the competition that didn’t take place. Two-time judo world champion Arash Miresmaeili of Iran was expected to boycott his first-round bout against Udi Vaks, but surprised everyone by disqualifying himself from the encounter when he failed to meet the required weight of under-66 kg at the pre-match weigh-in.

The Iranians thought they had managed to sneak out of a tricky situation and would not be punished for the boycott-like action, even though it was clear to everyone that a judoka of Miresmaeili’s standing, who was the gold medal favorite, would never otherwise fail to make weight at the Olympics. However, the International Judo Federation met to consider the circumstances around the disqualification and will meet again Monday, said federation spokesman Michel Brousse.

Miresmaeili "was overweight and we need now to investigate more,‘ he said. ’Everyone is innocent until proven guilty, and we don’t want to accuse anyone."

By merely missing weight, Miresmaeili could claim that he had not ascribed a political motive to his actions and thus avoid any sanctions for his decision. The federation did not disclose his weight.

After Miresmaeili was disqualified, Iran’s ambassador to Greece praised Miresmaeili, the Iranian press agency IRNA reported. In a message, Mehdi Mohtashami was quoted by IRNA as saying, "On behalf of all institutions and Iran’s embassy in Greece, I congratulate you on your courageous move to refuse to compete with a judoka from the Zionist regime."

"Certainly, the Iranian nation considers Miresmaeili as the real champion of the 2004 Olympic Games," the message added.

Vaks failed to take advantage of his technical win, losing to Amar Meridja of Algeria in his second-round bout.

It didn’t go any better for Michal Feinblatt in the women’s under-52 kg. The young Israeli was ousted in her first bout by Portugal’s Telma Monteiro.

For the second day in a row Israel’s swimmers failed to reach their modest goals, as Anna Gostomelsky swam the 100-m. backstroke qualifyers in 1:04.06, which was 1.67 seconds more than the slowest time that qualified for the semifinals. Gostomelsky finished fifth in her heat and 28th of 42 swimmers. She had hoped to eclipse her Israeli record (1:03.05).

On the Aegean Sea, Israel’s women sailors couldn’t match the results of their male counterparts. Lee Korzits, the 2003 world champion, came in 15th in each of the first two races and is ranked 17th out of 26 in the women’s Mistral.

In the 470 class, Vered Bouskila & Nike Kornecki all but fell out of contention by finishing their two races in 16th and 19th places. The duo, which had won medals at the last European and world championships, are now 18th out of 20 teams.

Freidman, a bronze medal winner at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996, finished the day’s opening race in fifth place, and came in third in the second race. However, the organizing committee later canceled the results from the first race, which had been won by Freidman’s chief rival, Nikolaos Kaklamanikis, who lit the Olympic flame at the opening ceremonies on Friday. The late announcement, which was the result of an appeal, dropped Kaklamanikis to fifth and moved the Israeli, who had himself been fifth, to third. The event will resume on Tuesday.

Gal & Kliger, who got off to an awful start on Saturday, finishing in 19th, came in sixth and eighth on Sunday to get within 10 points of the medal pack.

The pleasant surprise of the day for the second day in a row was Kravchenko, who ousted European champion Otilia Bodescu of Romania 11—6, 11—9, 4—11, 11—3, 8—11, 11—6 in a second-round match. The first Israeli table tennis player to compete at an Olympics, Kravchenko will next face the tournament’s fifth seed, Tamara Boros of Croatia, on Tuesday.

Afterwards, Kravchenko told reporters that "[i]t was a difficult match but when the Romanian player got nervous while I was leading 2—0, I knew I d beat her."

She also revealed that she was out for revenge from a previous loss to Bodescu and that the Romanian "had confided to a Russian friend of mine that she was going to win the match easily."