The weekend before we wave goodbye to the Rio Olympic Games, Israel will be following the progress of its rhythmic gymnastics team, which will try to dance its way to a podium finish. The Israeli Olympic delegation, which has already won two bronze medals thanks to judoka Yarden Gerbi and Ori Sasson, is hoping to secure its first third medal in a single Games. On Friday morning Rio time (4:20 p.m. in Israel), gymnast Neta Rivkin will take the mat for the preliminary individual rounds. The 25-year-old gymnast from Petach Tikva, just outside Tel Aviv, is competing in her third Olympics. In the 2008 Beijing Games, Rivkin came in 14th place. She finished in seventh place at the London Games in 2012, the best finish to date by an Israeli competitor. Rivkin was also the flag bearer for Israel at the opening ceremony of the Olympics and hopes to make it into her third Olympic finals round, which takes place Saturday afternoon. "Despite the injury that kept me from competing in the European Championship in Israel a few months ago, I did the requisite preparation and I really hope to succeed," Rivkin said ahead of the competition. "We expect Neta to make it into the finals. That will be an achievement for her, but our bigger hope for a medal is the [rhythmic gymnastics] team. As far as we're concerned, they'll certainly be in the finals, and from there -- the sky's the limit," Danny Oren, sport director of the Israeli Olympic delegation, told Israel Hayom. "We need to take it all in proportion. You [the media] always talk in terms of the bottom line, a medal, but the fact is that many stars and medal contenders in these Olympics, like in every Olympics, don't always win. We have faith in the girls. They've prepared, and we all hope to rejoice with them this weekend," Oren said. On Saturday afternoon, Alona Koshevatskiy, Ekaterina Levina, Yuval Filo, Karina Lykhvar and Ida Mayrin will try to become one of the eight teams to compete in the finals, scheduled to take place on Sunday, a few hours before the closing ceremony of the 2016 Games.
Israel hopes rhythmic gymnasts will earn delegation 3rd medal
Neta Rivkin, who sat out the European Championships due to an injury, hopes to make it into the finals of her third Olympic Games • Rhythmic gymnastics team expected to make the finals, and possibly score a podium finish.
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