Windsurfer Fridman wins Israel's first ever Olympic gold
By Ron Koffman, Haaretz Correspondent, Haaretz Service and Agencies
Gal Fridman was awarded a gold medal for the windsurfing event at a ceremony in Athens on Wednesday evening, Israel's first ever gold at the Olympics.
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During the ceremony, the Israeli national anthem "Hatikva" was played for the first time ever in the Olympic Games, while Fridman and the dozens of Isarelis in the audience sang along. Alex Giladi, the Israeli representative on the International Olympic Committee, bestowed the medal to Fridman, who looked very excited.
Fridman - the first Israeli to win two Olympic medals after winning the bronze in 1996 - finished the last of the 11 races in second place, but took the gold by scoring 42 points.
The silver went to Nikos Kaklamanakis of Greece, who finished with 52 points and Nick Dempsey of Britain won bronze.
After the ceremony, Fridman said: "I didn't believe that so many people would come to the ceremony. Everyone sang the 'Hatikva' with such intensity that people were in shock, they didn't understand where it came from." Fridman added that he also hoped to win the gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon called to congratulate Fridman after the ceremony. Sharon said: "An entire nation held its breath today in the afternoon during the last race. We were all excited to see you win. We always knew that you are worthy of a medal and you got it. The confidence and serenity you demonstrated throughout the contest were remarkable. You are truly a great sportsman. Israel is very proud of you," Sharon added.
Sharon also congratulated Fridman's trainer Gur Steinberg and the entire team that accompanied him. Fridman thanked the prime minister and said that he is excited by the gesture.
"It feels like a dream" After Fridman crossed the finish line, he took a victory dip and then wrapped himself in an Israeli flag when he came out of the water.
"It feels like a dream," Fridman said after his victory. "It's an amazing, indescribable feeling. I'm happy that you were all able to view the race live. I simply felt that the entire country was pushing me from behind. I suddenly felt extra energies, and I didn't know where they came from," he said.
"I planned the race well. My strategy was to pass ahead of the Brazilian, who was close to me. He missed a wind shift, and I was able to sail away from him. I saw that he was under pressure, which is evident by the fact the fact that he came in fourth place. We knew that he could fall because of lack of experience, Fridman said of the race.
"I'd like to thank the entire country of Israel. I didn't want to celebrate before crossing the finish line; afterwards everything came out," he said.
Residents of Fridman's hometown of Karkur, near Hadera, streamed to the family's house to celebrate, Israeli media said.
"It's very, very hard to believe that he succeeded in doing this," said Fridman's father, Uri.
President Moshe Katsav congratulated Fridman and invited him for a meeting to give him a "hug."
"I'm happy together with everyone about this win," Katsav said. "We all had great expectations that Gal would do this."
"Today, Gal simply raced with a lot of confidence and he deserved this victory," said his trainer Gur Steinberg. "Thanks to the entire country for all its support... This shows that we can beat other countries."
Going into the race, the athlete under the greatest pressure was Brazilian Ricardo Santos, who had a two-point lead over Fridman and was five points ahead of Kaklamanakis. Santos finished 17th in Wednesday's race.
After winning the 10th race Monday, Santos - Fridman's runner-up at the world championship at Pataya in 2002 - jumped for joy because he thought his gold medal was in the bag. His coach, Fernando Armel, who has seen plenty of last-minute changes in the last race, calmed him down.
Averbukh advances to finals Israeli pole vaulter Alex Averbukh advanced Wednesday to the finals in Athens, which will take place on Friday.
Averbukh, one of Israel's hopes for an Olympic medal, cleared the bar on all his first attempts at three different heights. He started by clearing 5.50 meters, continued with 5.65 meters and finished with the minimum height for the finals, 5.70 meters.
Averbukh cleared the bar this year on 5.85 meters, won two Golden League competitions and has been the European Champion since 2002.
Also Wednesday, Roei Yellin qualified for the Men's K1 1,000 meter final, after finishing third in the semifinals. The finals will take place on Friday morning.
2003 World Champion Lee Korzits came in 12th in the women's Mistral surfboard final race on Wednesday and was ranked 13th in the overall ranking. The winner was Faustine Merret of France.
Greco-Roman wrestler Yaakov Manshirov was defeated in his first bout 8-0 by Danil Khalimov of Kazakhstan and did not advance to the 74kg quarterfinals.
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