The Maccabiah's softball tournament is saved: After a full day of inspections and paperwork, the Petah Tikva municipality agreed on Wednesday to grant the operators of the Baptist Village softball field a valid business license, taking effect this morning.
Games are scheduled to resume Thursday at 8:30 A.M., the head of the Israel Softball Association, Ami Baran, said. He added that all canceled games will be made up according to a new schedule, which has teams playing from this morning until 11:30 P.M., Friday until about 90 minutes before the Shabbat begins, and on Saturday evening after Shabbat is over. The Maccabiah's official Web site (www.maccabiah.com) issued the fully revised schedule last night.
Baran said the issue was resolved quickly because the municipality was more forthcoming, showing it wanted to resolve the problem, and the vice mayor was instrumental in pushing it forward. He added that Maccabiah, Baptist Village and softball association staff were working around the clock to get the softball games back on track. "In European championships, oftentimes full days are canceled because of rain," Baran told Haaretz. "This was certainly a more distasteful type of cancellation, but we're used to moving games around and making up for lost time."
On Tuesday, the Petah Tikva municipality aborted an ongoing game between Israel and Mexico, saying the operators of the field did not have proper licensing.
Shatilov prevails on the floor
Meanwhile, Alex Shatilov won the gold medal yesterday in all-around gymnastics. He took first place in the floor exercise, the parallel bars and pommel horse. Shatilov, who competed in Beijing, beat David Sender of the U.S., who won gold in the horizontal bar and vaulting and shared a gold with Israel's Eduard Gholub in the rings. Israel's Roni Rabinovitz won the women's floor exercise.
Jillian Schwartz, an American pole vaulter who has said she is considering immigrating to Israel, won the gold medal by clearing 4.24 meters. Maayan Forman won the women's high jump by topping the 1.81-meter mark. In the women's discus throw, Israel's Sivan Jean won by a figurative mile with a throw of 48.27 meters, some 20 meters further than the next-best effort.
