Israel brought home a pair of medals in judo in what was a very busy day for the nation’s athletes at the Paris Olympics as there was plenty of excitement and success across the board.Inbar Lanir captured a silver medal in the Women’s -78kg category after collecting three yellow cards in the gold-medal bout against Alice Bellandi.Lanir began her day by defeating Khuslen Otgonbayar of Mongolia in the round-of-16 followed by a win over Guusje Steenhuis of Holland in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals, Lanir disposed of Anna-Maria Wagner from Germany via Ippon, ensuring a medal for Israel heading into the bout with the Italian.
However, Lanir had a tough time against Bellandi, who controlled the pace of the bout scoring a Waza-ari three minutes into the matchup before the Israeli was finally called for a third penalty for non-combativity.“I have to say that I wanted to break the glass ceiling and win a gold medal in judo which would have been the country’s first,” Lanir said with a high smile on her face. “I felt that it was possible, especially because of my coach Shani Hershko. It’s tough to be happy falling in the final, but still it’s an amazing accomplishment and it was a privilege to put on this performance. I can say that since the start of the war the most important thing for me was to train as hard as I could and come here to the Olympic Games in Paris to represent my country and see the flag raised.”
Peter Paltchik wins first Israeli medal of the games
Over on the men’s side, Peter Paltchik earlier in the day captured Israel’s first medal of the Games with plenty of drama as the judoka defeated Daniel Eich in the -100-kg bronze-medal bout by the score of 1-0.Paltchik began his day with wins over Gonchigsuren Batkhuyag from Mongolia and then the local favorite Aurelien Diesse from France in Golden Score on yellow cards in the round of 16.However, in the quarterfinals, Paltchik fell to World Champion Zelym Kotsoiev from Azerbaijan and headed to the Repechage, where he defeated Michael Korrel from Holland, setting up a bronze-medal matchup with Eich.Roughly minutes into the bout, Paltchik scored a Waza-ari to record a point but was then called for a pair of yellow cards for non-combativity and grip avoidance. With just five seconds remaining in the bout, the referee called for a third yellow card, which would have awarded the medal to Eich, but the call was overturned, and Paltchik held on to take home the bronze.“I can’t describe in words the feelings that I’m going through right now,” a teary-eyed Paltchik began. “Nothing ever comes easy for me. The time we’re going through in the country, the war, the injuries, the people we won’t see anymore. I just wanted to make everyone happy. My family, who sacrifices so much. I dedicate this to my entire family; I want them to have a hero who fought for everyone. This is for Omer, Oren’s son who was killed in battle.”Paltchik’s coach, Oren Smadja, who lost a son fighting Hamas in the Gaza Strip, also spoke about the medal.“We had a very difficult day. We knew we were coming here with our backs against the wall, but each bout raised his confidence. This was huge. I came here with a lot of emotions, and this is a moment of joy alongside the personal grief of losing my son Omer. Our country is experiencing trauma and this is the best public relations there is, we made amazing history.”On Friday, Raz Hershko will be in action in the +78kg category and is a threat to take home a medal, and on Saturday the team event will take place as the Israeli squad will look to at least duplicate its accomplishment from the previous Olympics and bring home a bronze medal.In the swimming pool, both the blue-and-white men and women strutted their stuff as they advanced to finals and semifinals of their respective competitions.Anastasia Gorbenko advanced to the semifinals of the women’s 200m Backstroke with a 13th-place finish with a time of 2:10.29. Aviv Barzelay finished 18th and was eliminated from contention with a time of 2:10.71.The Israeli women’s 4x200m Freestyle Relay Team of Gorbenko, Daria Golovaty, Ayla Spitz, Lea Polonsky finished 11th with a time of 7:55.99 in their semifinal heat but didn’t advance to the finals.On the men’s side, Meron Cheruti competed in the 50m freestyle and finished 10th in 21.88s to advance to the semifinals, while Martin Kartavi was eliminated with a time of 22.01s and finished 19th.In the 200m Individual Medley, Ron Polonsky swam brilliantly to finish in 7th with a time of 1:58.30m to advance to the semifinals.In sailing men’s dinghy, Omer Vered Vilenchik began his journey in the sea as he finished his first race in 38th but came back in the second race with a third-place finish to move him into 22nd overall.Tom Reuveny had a banner day in the ocean off the coast of Marseille as he moved into second place overall, just behind Grae Morris of Australia, while on the women’s side, Sharon Kantor is also in second place with Emma Wilson from Great Britain in front of her.In archery, Roy Dror – who had finished in 42nd place in the Men’s Individual Ranking Round with 655 points – fell 6-2 against Steve Wijler from Holland in the 1/32 Elimination Round.Artistic gymnast Artem Dolgopyat will be looking to defend his gold medal on Saturday when he will compete in the floor exercise.