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Richard Bowles finishes Israel Trail. Photo: Dov Greenblatt/SPNI

English-Australian ultra-marathoner wants more after finishing 1,009 km. Israel Trail run despite foot infection.

After plowing through 1,009 kilometers of the deserts, mountains and forests that highlight the Israel Trail, English- Australian ultra-marathoner Richard Bowles only wished that his journey could have been a little longer.

“I feel great actually,” Bowles told The Jerusalem Post over the phone on Thursday afternoon from Kibbutz Dan, just after he completed his run. “It’s nice to be here. I’m almost a little bit disappointed that it’s come to an end.”

Starting at the Eilat Field School on April 17, Bowles had planned to complete the entire trail in 12 days. Along the way, however, his body had other plans for him, when a foot infection began to pain him on April 25 – day nine of his expedition. After continuing about 60 kilometers the next day despite the infection, Bowles consulted with physicians and realized he would need to take a week off from running to allow the infection to heal.

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There’s something about Soccer (and as a Brit, by that I mean Football, pulease…) that seems to have captured investors’ imagination of late.

A case in point: FTBpro, a large fan-generated content platform has now secured $5.8 million from Battery Ventures and Gemini Israel Ventures to fund global expansion. The site currently has 20 million monthly page views, over 1,000 contributing fan writers, covering all major leagues worldwide and publishes content and tools in a variety of languages. And they are not the only one. The move comes just after ‘The Football App‘ raised its first institutional funding with a €10m Series A from a syndicate led by Earlybird Venture Capital in Berlin. The Football App has become a pretty dominant mobile football app amongst European fans.

On FTBpro, fans can publish and interact with each other and FTBpro’s editors. The site features match predictions, videos, imagery slideshows, team line-ups and player rankings amongst others.

Based out of London with R&D is in Tel Aviv, FTBpro’s business model is advertising and brand sponsorships. It works on Android or iOS and the competition includes sports UGC players Bleacher Report (US), which was acquired by Time Warner Sports.

For its part, The Football App has 3.5m monthly and up to 1.5m daily active users, says it is putting on a 100,000 users a day across 155 markets and with high retention rates. They will use the funds to grow internationally.

More to come in this space I dares say as ‘second screen’ app take off.

Source: Infoxicate.me

Israel celebrates promotion from what was a very competitive Division IIB World Championships in Turkey. Photo: Irfan Kurudirek

IZMIT, Turkey – World rankings went out of the window as Israel struck gold at the 2013 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Division II Group B. Hosts Turkey will stay in Division II thanks to a win on the final day against Bulgaria.

40th in the latest IIHF World Rankings and with a disappointing fifth-place finish last year, Israel entered the tournament in Izmit as an unknown entity and the second-lowest ranked team.

Four games and four wins later, promotion to Division II Group A was already a done deal going into the last day. Hard fought victories against China (6-3), Turkey (5-3) and New Zealand (3-2) set the tone for the Israelis led by points by their lethal first line of Daniel Ehrlich, Oren Eizenman and Maxim Birbraer. All three players, who had been unavailable during last year’s World Championship, now made the difference with Ehrlich almost single-handedly clinching promotion by scoring 11 points in a 13-2 rout of Bulgaria on day 4.

Despite a defeat to Mexico in the last game, it was a tournament with an array of positives for Israel head coach Jean Perron.

“Overall we played really well and disciplined, and the first four games were extremely pleasant for me as a coach,” he said. “When I talk about discipline I don’t only mean staying away from penalties, but also that the players are following the system that we are set to play. We upset China right from the start, we upset New Zealand, so we had a very successful ride. I wish we could have won the fifth game too, but overall we played extremely well.”

Perron, a 1986 Stanley Cup winning coach with the Montreal Canadiens enjoyed a fruitful spell with Israel already between 2005-06 when he then steered the Middle Eastern nation to Division I to play against the likes of France and Germany. Now in his second spell as head coach, Perron believes good progress is once again being made in Israel.

“With the new management and the new direction at the Israeli Federation it seems like we are going to be able to keep our best players so they can continue to play and practise even when they are doing the military service. Also the junior players we had here in Izmit are better than the ones I had during my first year in Israeli hockey, so I think we are on the right path,” he said.

While Israel can look forward to Division IIA next year, second-placed New Zealand will rue some of the decisions made out on the ice during their tight encounter with the eventual gold medal winners. Three Israeli goals in one man advantage saw them rush into a 3-1 lead. Jeremy Chai pulled a goal back for the Ice Blacks midway through the final frame, but despite offensive pressure and having pulling goaltender Richard Parry from the net, they weren’t able to get the tying goal and Israel held out for a 3-2 win.

“Five on five we were even with Israel but we weren’t smart enough to avoid penalties. They score three power-play goals against us and that cost us the game,” said New Zealand head coach Andreas Kaisser.

Coming down from Division IIA for this season, New Zealand arrived to Turkey without a few regular starters as the players themselves having to fork out NZ$ 4,000 (€2,600) for their World Championship trip. But, with his team ending up level with points with Israel, Kaisser can take a lot of positives with him ahead of next year’s promotion push.

“The boys showed a lot of character throughout the tournament. All five games were tough and they really came closer together as a team. The last game against China reflects the whole tournament for us, we were two goals down, but the players showed true character and that they are really determined and passionate for their sport and to play for their country and it was great to see,” said Kaisser after the 6-5 win against China, a game which sealed their silver medals ahead of Mexico.

29 hectic third period seconds into the final frame of Mexico’s closing game versus Israel first saw Bryan Arroyo’s slapshot finding the top corner before Cristofer Kelo reacted in front of the net to steer home the 4-3 winning goal in Mexico’s favour that won the bronze medals for the Central Americans, their first at the Division II level.

Mexico needed time to get into tournament mode as its crop of players arrived to Izmit without having played any national championship this season and with only three competitive international games behind them all season – dating back as far as to a Olympic Preliminary Qualification in Croatia in September last year.

“We must have been the underdogs for the others, and for ourselves we didn’t really know what to think about us as a team” said forward Manuel Sierra. “But I think we did a good job and now we are looking forward to try and get to host the World Championship in Mexico City for next year and try and win it.”

Things are looking up now for the Mexican program, with a third Olympic-sized ice rink due for completion in the capital of Mexico which the federation will be having easy access to.

China, who last year finished second in Division II Group B, blew hot and cold during a tournament in which they finished fourth. Lack of discipline such as 97 penalty minutes in the 5-0 loss to Mexico were mixed with sparks of brilliance when scoring three unanswered second-period goals against New Zealand in their final game 6-5 loss.

The youngest team of the tournament with an average age of only 22, Japanese head coach Keisuke Araki, in his second year at the helm, harbours high hopes for his promising crop of youngsters.

“Our players are very young and skilled, but lack experience, so they need time. Most of them also play in the Asia League with China Dragon. They will have a lot of good experiences and we are hoping that in two years we can be ready to promote the national team up one division and in five years maybe even be ready to take another step up,” said Araki.

Meanwhile, at the other end, despite four straight defeats, newly promoted hosts Turkey were able to take great credit from high-spirited performances throughout the tournament, such as being 3-2 up against Israel ahead of the third period, before losing 5-3 in the end. But the hosts finally broke through and got their reward in their final game, in the relegation-decider against neighbours Bulgaria.

Down 3-1 early thanks to Bulgaria’s prospect Georgi Iskrenov scoring a first period hat-trick, Turkey worked themselves back into the game.

Despite a short power failure midway through the second period, the light never went out for the Turks’ battle for survival as they rallied back to tie the game at 3-3 before the middle frame came to and end. Two quick goals by Yusuf Halil and Serkan Gumus with 42 seconds between them in the final period sealed the game, which in the end finished with a 6-3 win for Turkey and a place in next year’s Division II Group B.

“Motivation is never a problem with these players,” said Turkey head coach Eduard Hartmann. “Instead it can often get too emotional and hot-blooded and I had to tell my players to be calm down and be patient after we scored our fourth goal.”

The consequences for Bulgaria following their final day loss meant relegation to Division III but also the end of a magnificent international career of a true hockey legend.

With a remarkable 24 senior World Championships between the pipes for Bulgaria, Konstantin Mihaylov will bow out from the international stage. He made his last appearance in the defeat against Israel as he replaced Nikola Nikolov in the net for the final period, where the age gap between the two goalies were 29 years and five days.

Mihaylov’s advice to his 19-year-old disciple whom he coached for four years in the past is as plain as its simple: “He has the skills, but he must train harder.”

Final Ranking:
1. Israel 12 (promoted)
2. New Zealand 12
3. Mexico 11
4. China 6
5. Turkey 3
6. Bulgaria 1 (relegated)

Source: IIHF.com

Shatilov tied for first place in the floor exercise competition receiving 15.333 points in the competition taking place in Moscow.

Israeli gymnast Alex Shatilov, 25, won the gold medal for floor exercise at the European Championship in Moscow.

Shatilov gave a tremendous performance in his exercise, rated with a difficulty level of 6.4, and was awarded an impressive 15.333 points, finishing in first place, paired with another athlete who received the same number of points, in a final consisting of 8 participants.

In the past Shatilov won two bronze medals (2009 and 2011) and one silver medal (2011) at the European championships, and this is the currently the crowning achievement of his career. The Israeli gymnast, who finished in sixth place in the last Olympic Games, is considered one of Israel’s best hopes for the upcoming Olympic Games in Rio in 2016.

On Sunday, Shatilov will also compete in the horizontal bar event. Immediately after, Ophir Netzer, a 17-year-old Israeli girl will compete in the vault event. This will be her fourth ever international competition.

Source: Haaretz.com

Israel beat Denmark the last time the two countries met at Wingate in a 15-0 match.

Israel’s national rugby team plays its last European Nations Cup game of the season tomorrow when it hosts Denmark. Victory and bonus points will give Israel an eight-point lead over the second-place team and practically ensure one of the top two spots in Division 2B.

Israel beat Denmark the last time the two countries met at Wingate in a 15-0 match. However, the two squads have gone different ways since then. While Denmark only registered its first win of the campaign last week by defeating Serbia, Israel has racked up three victories, edging Latvia 17-15 last week.

“The Danes are in good shape,” head coach Ra’anan Penn told his players this week. “They tore apart Serbia.” Penn noted that the Danish squad is much more balanced than Latvia, so it will be more difficult to play against them. “They have lighter and more mobile forwards, and a balanced line with a lot of players who can take the ball ahead,” he added. “We’ll have to be better than them at every position.”

Winning isn’t enough for Penn and the players, who want to score four tries in order to earn bonus points. The key is asserting unrelenting pressure. The Israeli squad is capable of putting great pressure on the lead opponents with the ball as well as the Danish scrum.

Israel will rely on Eitan Humphreys and Mordechay Radashkovich, who is expected to open at the 10 position, to arrive quickly and cut the Danish attack before it gathers force. The team can also rely on Michael Eli, Yonatan Kaplan and Gilad Goldstein to lead to breakouts in the center of the pitch and turn the expected rain to Israel’s advantage. In contrast, the rain is liable to undo Israel’s most important advantage − its fans. Some 500 Israelis sat on the sidelines during the game against Latvia, egging on Israel in the final minutes. Another 1,500 spectators sat in the stands. Israel Rugby officials expressed concern about this scenario.

“Israeli fans are not spoiled,” said Israel Rugby Union chairman Menachem Ben Menachem. “I’m sure that even in wintry weather all the national team’s fans will leave home and push us to another victory.”

Source: Haaretz.com

Game in preparation for three World Cup qualifiers to be held on same day as Celebrate Israel Parade in Manhattan

Honduras will play a friendly game against Israel at Citi Field on June 2 in preparation for three World Cup qualifiers.

The game was announced Tuesday and will be played on the same day as the Celebrate Israel Parade in Manhattan.

Honduras, ranked 49th in FIFA, plays qualifiers at Costa Rica on June 7, at home against Jamaica four days later and against the US in Utah on June 18.

Honduras is fourth in the six-nation final round of North and Central American and the Caribbean qualifying.

The top three qualify for next year’s tournament in Brazil. The fourth-place team advances to a playoff against New Zealand.

Israel is ranked 74th and second in Europe Group F. The nine European group winners qualify, and eight second-place teams advance to playoffs.

Source: Ynetnews.com

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