Sailing frustrations, surfing triumphs and tough judo battles for Israel in Paris
Low winds again delay iQFoil contest, where Sharon Kantor is heavy favorite; in Tahiti, Anat Lelior advances to round 3; judokas Timna Nelson-Levy, Tohar Butbul knocked out early
Amy Spiro is a reporter and writer with The Times of Israel
The third day of sporting competitions at the Paris Olympics saw weather-related frustrations for Israel’s windsurfers, a disappointment in swimming, and an achievement in surfing thousands of miles away in Tahiti.
After wind conditions canceled the scheduled windsurfing competitions for Sunday and delayed them on Monday, they were finally underway by Monday afternoon. The sailors, however, were still plagued by low winds and difficulties, with only two out of five races completed in the women’s race.
Israel’s Sharon Kantor — who won a gold medal at the iQFoil World Championships earlier this year — is considered one of the Jewish state’s most likely medal contenders in Paris.
During her first race on Monday, Kantor finished in a disappointing 15th place. In the second race, she finished first, but the results were then disqualified after the low wind caused a number of competitors to drop out. In the redone second race, Kantor ended up in 6th place.
Following those two races, Olympic officials suspended the windsurfing events for the rest of the day, postponing the additional three races which were slated to be held. Kantor is currently ranked in 15th position following those two races; while 20 races are meant to be held before the medal race on Friday, it is not clear whether some will be cut short due to the weather difficulties, or whether the medal race will be rescheduled.
In the men’s iQFoil, only one race was held before the events were suspended, during which Israel’s Tom Reuveny finished in 8th position.
Earlier Monday, Israeli judokas Timna Nelson-Levy and Tohar Butbul were both knocked out in early rounds of their competitions.
Nelson-Levy lost her second match to South Korea’s Huh Mi-mi, who is ranked third in the world, in the under-57kg weight class, after she received three penalties (shidos) during the extended “golden score” period. Earlier, she beat Slovenia’s Kaja Kajzer in her initial match.
A tearful Nelson-Levy told the Sport5 channel minutes after being knocked out that “I put my heart on the mat today; sadly, it wasn’t enough.” She said, “I guess today wasn’t my day, even though I went in feeling great… I prepared my whole life for this moment, and this is it. It will take me time to let it sink in.”
The judoka said that during difficult times back at home in Israel, “I know that both I and the whole delegation wanted to give a little comfort, a little smile in the heart [to Israelis]. Even though my loss is difficult, people in Israel are going through much more difficult things, so you have to put things into proportion.”
Butbul lost to Azerbaijan’s Hidayat Heydarov, the top ranked judoka in the world under-73kg weight class, in the round of 16, after he also got three penalties during extended time.
Butbul was supposed to first face Algeria’s Messaoud Dris, but Dris disqualified himself from the competition by showing up over 73kg to the weigh-in on Sunday night rather than face the Israeli judoka. Heydarov and Butbul embraced at the end of their match, as is often the case in judo. On Sunday, both the Tajik and Moroccan judokas who faced off against Israeli Baruch Shmailov left the mat without shaking hands with Shmailov following their matches.
The judoka told Sport5 that “I felt like I gave it my all — maybe it wasn’t smart enough, maybe I didn’t come at it smart enough. I gave 100% and I left the mat unhappy with the result, but at least I know that I gave 100%.” Representing Israel during this time, “in particular since October 7, has greater significance — you want to come and represent your country with pride and hoist the flag as high as you can… our presence here is the biggest victory we can have as emissaries and athletes who represent the country.”
Butbul and Nelson-Levy are both likely to compete in the judo mixed team event on Saturday — the event in which they both contributed to Israel winning a bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics.
In another disappointment on Monday, Israeli swimmer Anastasia Gorbenko failed to qualify for the final of the women’s 400m individual medley at the 2024 Paris Olympics, finishing 6th in her heat and 10th overall, with a time of 4:41.64.
On Sunday, Gorbenko qualified for the semifinal in the 100m breaststroke but opted to sit it out to focus her energies instead on Monday’s race, one of her strongest, which ended with disappointment. Gorbenko is slated to compete in several other swimming events throughout the Games.
Gorbenko told Sport5 that she felt good going in, but the first 200m “took a lot of strength out of me,” and she found it hard to recover for the second half. “I gave everything I had… I’m very disappointed because I worked very hard this year, in particular for this event, so it’s very disappointing.”
Meanwhile Israeli swimmer Aviv Barzelay finished first in her heat in the women’s 100m backstroke but 25th overall with a time of 1:02.30, failing to qualify for the semifinal.
Israeli cyclist Tomer Zaltsman finished the men’s cross country mountain biking event in 29th place out of 36 competitors, with a time of 1:34:47. He was slowed down after having to stop midway for a tire puncture.
Zaltsman broke his arm last month and underwent surgery and extensive rehab to be cleared to compete in Paris.
Writing on Instagram after his race, Zaltsman wrote that “with or without a broken hand, this is not what I came for. I wanted and I knew that I could do so much more. The circumstances were difficult and I did my best, but I’m still disappointed that this chapter ended like this.”
Israel made its mountain biking debut at the 2016 Rio Olympics, where Shlomo Haimy finished 29th in the men’s cross-country mountain biking event after suffering a tire puncture. At the Tokyo Games, Haimy finished 33rd in the race.
Overnight between Sunday and Monday — competing thousands of miles from Paris, in the waves off the coast of Tahiti, French Polynesia — Israeli surfer Anat Lelior advanced to the round of 16 after winning her Round 2 heat against Spain’s Janire Gonzalez-Etxabarri with 11 points.
Lelior will compete again overnight — midday on Monday Tahiti time — in a heat against Australian Tyler Wright for a chance to advance to the surfing quarterfinal.
Badminton player Misha Zilberman is slated to compete late Monday evening against Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen, where he will face a tough battle to advance to the quarterfinals.
On Tuesday, judokas Sagi Muki and Gili Sharir will compete in the men’s under-81kg and women’s under-63kg weight classes, respectively.
Triathlete Shachar Sagiv — who came 20th in the triathlon at the Tokyo Olympics, setting a new Israeli record — will return to improve his Olympic appearance in Paris.
In the pool, Tomer Frankel will compete in the 100m freestyle, hoping to qualify for the semifinal, while swimmers Bar Soloveychik, Eitan Ben Shitrit, Gal Cohen Groumi and Denis Loktev will compete in the men’s 4×200m freestyle relay, aiming to advance to the final.
Israel’s soccer team will play a critical and challenging match against Japan on Tuesday evening in Nantes, France, which will determine if it will continue in the tournament or end its Olympic run.
