The 2019 -81kg World Champion was one of the high hopes for the Israeli delegation to not only capture a medal but to perhaps win gold. However, that was not to be. Muki opened the competition well by winning his first bout in the round-of-32 against Brazil’s Eduardo Santos via Ippon in just 1:36 and looked to be heading in the right direction. But a tough round-of-16 opponent in Austria’s Shamil Borchashvili gave Muki fits from the get go of their matchup.
Muki had defeated Borchashvili twice this year, but appeared to have hurt his knee early on in the bout as he favored it after having fallen to the ground. Borchashvili then picked up two penalties which gave the Israeli hope to win the battle. But Muki was unable to find a way to force the Austrian into a third penalty or win by Waza-ari or Ippon once the bout went into the Golden Score overtime period.
With Muki continuously being on the defensive as well as being exhausted, he picked up a pair of penalties as well and finally succumbed to Borchashvili via Waza-ari, sending the former World Champion home empty-handed from Japan.
“Things just didn’t come together for me,” Muki said after the loss. “The last bout, we both fought so hard and gave it our all, but it just didn’t work out. I didn’t want it to end like this. He threw me down and all of a sudden I was out. One day you’re the world champion and the next, you’re not.”
“A lot of things went on this past year and I continued to train hard in order to come into the Olympics ready to go, it just didn’t work out. I’ll return home and continue on. I have been in these types of moments before and I know what I am capable of. There is no question that I could have brought home an Olympic medal, but judo is a cruel sport and I knew that.”
In related news, Iranian-born judoka Saeid Mollaei won a silver medal in Muki’s category as a representative for the Mongolian team.
Mollaei was granted refugee status by Germany in 2019 after fleeing Iran for refusing to forfeit his match against Muki.
Noting his close friendship with Muki, Israeli channel Sports 5 quoted him as thanking Israel: “Thank you to Israel for all the good energy – this medal is dedicated to you as well and I hope Israelis is happy with this victory, todah.”
Mollaei received citizenship in Mongolia shortly afterwards, and was chosen to compete under its flag in the Olympics.
Gili Sharir, who was making her Olympics debut at the age of 21, was eliminated on penalties in Golden Score in the round-of-32 by Katharina Hecker of Australia. On Wednesday, Li Kochman will take to the mat when he meets David Klammert from the Czech Republic in the -90kg category in the round-of-32.
Meanwhile, over in the pool, 17-year old Anastasia Gorbenko became the first Israeli woman to compete in a swimming final when she took part in the 100m Backstroke. Gorbenko recorded a time of 59.53s, 2.06 seconds off the gold medalist Kaylee McKeown, who also set an Olympic record.
An hour later, Gorbenko was back in action as she took part in the 200m Individual Medley semifinal, which is one of her strongest disciplines. However, Gorbenko’s time of 2:10.7m was good enough for only 10th place and she missed out on advancing to her second final in as many days by only .11 of a second.
“It’s been so exciting to be at my first games,” Gorbenko exclaimed. “It’s great to be able to represent our country and we have a terrific group of athletes. I gave it my all and unfortunately it just wasn’t enough. I was close but all in all this was my first time in a final and I am happy that I didn’t succumb to the pressure. I was a bit disappointed not making the 200m final but I was very close. My goal is to advance as far as I can.”
Gorbenko will be back in the pool on Wednesday when she takes part in the 100m Freestyle along with fellow Israeli Andi Murez, while the Women’s 4x200 Freestyle Relay Team will also be competing.
Over on the Men’s side, Meiron Cheruti placed 29th in the 100m Freestyle qualification with a time of 49.26s which wasn’t good enough to advance to the semifinals while Ron Polonsky finished in 27th place in the 200m Breaststroke with a time of 2:12:71m which saw him eliminated from the competition. The Men’s 4x200 Freestyle Relay Team of Denis Loktev, Daniel Namir, Tomer Frankel and Gal Cohen Groumi were also in action and placed 10th with a time of 7:08:65 which wasn’t good enough to advance to the finals.
Cohen Groumi and Polonsky will be back in the pool on Wednesday in the 200m Individual Medley qualification while Yakov Toumarkin will participate in the 200m Backstroke qualification.
In Laser Radial Sailing, Shay Kakon placed 39th and 32nd in races 5 and 6, which moved her down to 35th place overall. With a day off on Wednesday, Kakon will be back in the water on Thursday.
Katy Spychkov and Yoav Cohen will also be back in action in RS:X Sailing after an off day on Tuesday while Noya Baram and Schachar Tibi will make their Olympic debuts in the Women’s 470 Race on Wednesday.
Over in badminton, Ksenia Polikarpova lost her second group stage match 2-1 to Ngan Yi Cheung from Hong Kong and ended her Olympic appearance.
Itay Shanny and Omer Shapira will both return to action on Wednesday in Archery and Cycling, respectively.