Israeli female sailors rank third after first day’s races

Israel’s female sailors were ranked third after their first day of sailing on Friday afternoon, while the country’s top shooter was eliminated from Olympic competition in the morning.

Gil Cohen and Vered Buskila piloted their sailboat — a 470 model — to a third place finish in their opening race, and to sixth place in their second race. At the end of their first day at the 2012 Olympics, the tandem were ranked third overall in their category.

Israel’s Sergey Richter finished 44th out of 50 competitors in the 50 meter rifle prone competition Friday. One of Israel’s leading Olympic hopefuls, Richter failed to qualify for the finals and thereby ended his run at the London Olympic games.

Richter garnered 587 points but missed one of his first 10 shots and proceeded to miss several more of his first 100 shots, after which he missed twice, again, during his final five rounds.

Although the event is not his strongest, he had hoped to make it into the top eight. In 2011, Richter was considered one of the highest-ranked shooters in the world despite being only 23-years-old, and on Monday he missed the finals of the 10 meter rifle shootout by a mere one point.

Israel’s men’s team in the 470 raced twice on Friday, and after four races at the Weymouth Olympic site Eran Sela and Gideon Kliger were ranked 11th.

Nofar Edelman sailed her Lasor Radial for the eighth time at the 2012 Games, and was ranked 28th overall with two races left.