Israel’s mixed judo team wins bronze at world championships in Uzbekistan

Israel’s mixed team won a bronze medal Thursday in the 2022 World Judo Championships held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

The team narrowly beat the Dutch national team to secure the prize, placing third in the senior mixed teams category.

Mixed rounds consist of several individual matchups.

Israeli judoka Guy Gurevitch first lost to Frank de Wit, giving the Netherlands a 1:0 lead.

Raz Hershko then brought Israel to 1:1, but fellow team member Peter Paltchik lost to Michal Korrel, giving the Dutch team a 2:1 lead.

Timna Nelson Levy then beat Pleuni Cornelisse, once again bringing the countries to a tie.

Israel’s Raz Hershko (white) and France’s Julia Tolofua compete in their women’s over 78 kg category bronze medal bout during the 2022 World Judo Championships at the Humo Arena in Tashkent on October 12, 2022. (Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP)

Victories by Ido Levine and Maya Goshen brought the Jewish state the bronze with a 4:2 overall victory.

Earlier that day, the team had competed and beat the Uzbekistan team in a 4:2 match in Israel’s favor.

Israel then beat South Korea 4:3 after Hershko won a tiebreaking match.

The team then lost to France with a score of only 4:1, leaving them to vie with the Netherlands for the third-place position.

Team Japan took home the competition’s gold medal while France won silver.

Three members of this year’s international team — Hershko, Paltchik and Nelson-Levy — also represented Israel in the Tokyo Olympics held in 2021. There, they also helped the country win bronze in the mixed-team competition, contributing to the Jewish state’s winning four medals in one Olympics, the highest tally in the country’s history.

The 2022 judo championships were originally scheduled to coincide with Yom Kippur, but they were pushed back after Moshe Ponte, president of the Israel Judo Association, requested the International Judo Federation delay the competition.