It is now official, signed and sealed the Israeli delegation to the London Olympics may have completed its campaign without a single medal, but sports officials highlighted a number of achievements that should nonetheless be seen as noteworthy.
"It's true we disappointed when it came to medals, but when it came to getting into the finals, we met our expectations and did better than we did in Beijing," said Gili Lustig, the chairman of the Elite Sport Department at the Israel Olympic Committee. "We went through to eight finals, compared to six four years ago, and some of them were in the major Olympic events, such as swimming and gymnastics. In addition, several of our athletes chalked up the best-ever Israeli results in Olympic competition."
Israel's final representatives taking part in events on Sunday failed to finish in any of the top three spots.
Despite the overall medal drought, however, the Israeli rhythmic gymnastics team certainly met expectations with a respectable achievement, making it to the finals of their event for the second consecutive games. While Noa Palatchy, Vika Koshel, Moran Buzovski, Polina Zakaluzny, Eliora Zholkovski and Marina Shultz couldn't exceed or match their previous results from Beijing 2008 (sixth place), their eight place finish is respectable in and of itself.
The Israeli team, which reached the finals from the preliminary round ranked seventh, arrived at Wembley Arena Sunday with the knowledge that their first goal, making it to the finals, was achieved. The rhythmic gymnasts primarily wanted to improve on their results from the earlier round and finish at least in sixth place, but after the first ball routine it was already apparent that the goal had slipped away.
The Israeli team finished with a final score of 53.400 points, and was overtaken by the Japanese team that entered the finals one place behind them.
"We didn't make any mistakes, but the judges are the ones who decide and that was apparently the score we deserved. We were the lion's tail [the last among the best] and we met our objective of reaching the finals," said Zholkovski.
The team's captain, Moran Buzovski, was also upbeat following the competition: "During the three days of competition we did four mistake-free exercises, and the most important thing is that our coaches are pleased, that's the most important thing."
As for the team's future, according to Noa Palatchy, "Everyone will decide for herself. We'll get home and see where it goes."
Meanwhile, Israel's representative in the grueling marathon event, Zohar Zemiro, finished in a disappointing 81st place. Zemiro, who expected to finish in the top half of the event, ran a time of 2:34.59. He can at least take solace in the fact that he was among the 85 athletes who completed the punishing competition, after 20 runners needed to quit along the way.
The only thing left to do now is to look ahead to Rio de Janeiro, where the next Games will be held in 2016.
Israel finds some Olympic comfort in London performance
Israel Olympic official stresses that although there were no medals, Israel went through to eight finals including in major events, such as swimming and gymnastics, and several athletes broke Israeli records.
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