Archive | 2012 | July | 29

Today wasn’t the best day for Israel’s Olympic delegation, 6 Olympians are going home empty-handed… GOOD LUCK TOMORROW!

Men’s 10m Air Rifle 09:00 Sergey Richter 

Men’s -73kg Judo 10:19 Joseph Susu Paleashvili 

Men’s 200m Butterfly 10:21 Heat 1 Gal Nevo 

Women’s 200m Individual Medley 10:41 Heat 3 Amit Ivry 

Women’s Laser Radial 12:05 Nufar Edelman

Judoka Golan Pollack, badminton player Misha Zilberman, and swimmers Yakov Toumarkin and swimmer Nimrod Shapira Bar-Or are all eliminated on second day since opening ceremony; women’s artistic gymnast Valeriia Maksiuta ranks last.

Sunday was a disappointing day for Israeli athletes in London, as five competitors ended their Olympic bid on the second day since the games’ opening ceremony.

On Sunday morning, judoka Golan Pollack was defeated 1-0 by David Larose of France in the 66 kilogram category, ending his Olympic bid in the Round of 64.

Following Pollack’s loss, fellow Israeli judoka Arik Zeevi Tweeted on his teammate’s loss: “The second day of the judo tournament started half an hour ago with Golan Pollack’s fight. He, I’m sorry to say, lost to the Frenchman and was eliminated from the tournament. It’s a little hard to digest the fact that you can start a competition at 9:30 and finish it at 9:35, and that’s all. The Olympics are over for Golan. Bummer. Let’s hope my day of competition will be longer.”

A couple of hours later, swimmer Yakov Toumarkin swam his 100-meter backstroke heat in 54.91 seconds, finishing sixth in his heat and failing to make the Top 16 for the semifinals.

Over on the badminton court, Misha Zilberman lost his second Group I match 21-9, 21-15, this time to Singapore’s Derek Wong, and was eliminated from the competition.

Further adding to Israel’s disappointment, swimmer Nimrod Shapira Bar-Or finished his 200-meter freestyle heat in 1:48.60 minutes. He finished 21st in the heats and will not make the semifinals.

Women’s artistic gymnast Valeriia Maksiuta had a very painful and disappointing outing. After falling once from the vault, for which she averaged 13.3 for her two attempts, and the uneven bars (9.433), she received low scores in the beam (10.533) and the floor (12.933). She is dead last (31st) in the overall individual rankings after the first preliminary round.

The last Israeli to compete on Sunday is tennis player Shahar Peer, who will meet Maria Sharapova of Russia in the third match of the day on the center court.

Source: Haaretz.com

Basking in the success of his last outing, Cocktail, actor-producer Saif Ali Khan has revealed that his next home production will star Oscar Award winning Hollywood actor, Natalie Portman.

“A love story we are working on … It’s a secret … We are doing a film with Natalie Portman,” the 41-year-old was quoted as saying by a Mumbai tabloid. The actor remained unavailable for details.

This is not the first time that the Black Swan actor will be seen working with an Indian actor. She was also seen with actor Irrfan in the 2009 ensemble flick, New York, I Love You.

More on romantic ‘Saif’

Actor Saif Ali Khan says that he hopes do a romcom even after ten years.

Saif has tasted box office success and audience appreciation whenever he did a rom-com: Kal Ho Na Ho (2003), Hum Tum (2004), Salaam Namaste (2005), Love Aaj Kal (2009).

Source: Hindustantimes.com

Unless there are some major surprises in the third qualification group, he will progress to the final of the overall competition and the floor event.

LONDON – Alex Shatilov made a strong start to the artistic gymnastics event at the London Olympics on Saturday. Unless there are some major surprises in the third qualification group, he will progress to the final of the overall competition and the floor event.

Shatilov started the day well, scoring 14.700 on the parallel bars, followed by 14.333 on the rings, 15.000 on the horizontal bar and 14.133 on the pommel horse. In the final event, the vault, he scored 15.533 – one of the best results of the day. The critical moment for Shatilov, however, came in the floor exercise, which is generally recognized as his strongest. He was fully-focused and scored a hugely impressive 15.633 – earning not only second place in his group, but warm applause from the crowd.

At the end of the day’s events, Shatilov had amassed 89.032 points, leaving him seventh overall. “I came into today’s events totally ready,” he told Haaretz afterward. “There’s still a lot of room for improvement, but I have a couple of days to get ready. I got the job done today and I really feel like I’m in with a shot of winning a medal. Today was good preparation for the final. I’m as good as anyone participating here.”

As of press time, the third group of gymnasts were still competing, so Shatilov’s final placing is still unknown. He’s currently seventh in the overall standings (with 24 progressing to the final ) and third in the floor exercise (where eight competitors will go through to the final ).

Shatilov was not the only Israeli gymnast in action yesterday. Felix Aharonovitch, who, at the age of just 24 is making his first Olympic appearance, put in a decent display. He scored 14.033 on the floor, 13.433 on the pommel horse, 14.100 on the rings, 13.900 on the vault, 14.233 on the parallel bars and 13.500 on the horizontal bar.

At the moment, Aharonovitch is ranked 19th overall with 83.199 points.

“Having got a taste of the Olympic Games,” he said, “I want more. I felt good, and apart from one little slip in my last event, I’m pleased with my performance. I wasn’t far off making the final of the all-round competition.”

Source: Haaretz.com

Andy Ram and Yoni Erlich, known as ‘AndYoni,’ beat their Spanish opponents in straight sets.

Andy Ram and Yoni Erlich progressed to the second round of the men’s doubles tournament on Saturday, beating their Spanish opponents in straight sets.

Popularly known as “AndYoni,” the Israeli pair took 49 minutes to win a tight first set on a tiebreak, after all 12 games went with serve.

The Israeli duo was hampered by extremely low first-serve figures, recording just 49 percent in the first set. They improved slightly in the second set, climbing to 61 percent, but were still out-served by the Spaniards.

Both duos had their serve broken once during the second set – the Israelis were broken in the third game, but broke back immediately. The second set also went to a tiebreak, which AndYoni won 7-3.

The Israeli duo will next face whomever wins the match between reigning Olympic champion Switzerland (Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka) and Japan (Go Soeda and Kei Nishikori). That game is set to take place on Sunday afternoon. The Israelis will be hoping that Federer is still suffering the aftereffects of his tough three-set singles victory over Alejandro Falla of Colombia.

In the women’s singles today, Shahar Peer will attempt to overcome not only her aversion to playing on grass but also a far superior opponent in the shape of Maria Sharapova.

Peer, currently ranked 49th in the world and unseeded for the Olympics, has played Sharapova (world number 3 and third seed at the Games ) six times before – and has yet to win.

“I’ve really got nothing to lose,” Peer told Haaretz yesterday. “I’ll try to be as aggressive and nimble as possible. I don’t like grass, but I’ll do my best and you never know.”

Source: Haaretz.com

Israel @ the Olympics: July 29th Morning Schedule

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