Israeli judoka wins gold in the Netherlands
Peter Paltchik takes victory in up to 100 kilo category at The Hague Grand Prix; teammate Baruch Shmailov brings home silver
Stuart Winer is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel.
Israeli judoka Peter Paltchik won a gold medal Sunday at The Hague Grand Prix in the Netherlands, adding to his tally of three previous first places in international competitions this year.
Paltchik beat Mikita Sviryd to win the under-100 kilogram contest in a bout that ran into nearly a minute and half of extra time before the Israeli finally achieved an ipon by throwing his opponent to the mat.
It was the second medal for Israel in the contest, after Baruch Shmailov won a silver on Friday in the under 66-kilo contest.
Last month Paltchik won a gold medal at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, where fellow athlete Sagi Muki also won the top medal in the under-80 kilogram category. Their successes led to Israel’s national anthem, Hatikva, being played for the first time at a Gulf State sporting contest.
In March Paltchik won gold at the Grand Prix Tbilisi, Georgia.
Israel’s national coach, Oren Smadja, himself a former Olympic judo bronze medalist, said the recent successes show the team is proving its abilities “on the way to Tokyo” games in 2020.
“This is an important achievement for the team, which is managing to win in tournament after tournament, and maintain stability on the way to the ultimate goal,” he said, according to Ynet.
The competition results put Israel 6th on the medal table out of 32 countries.
