Three months before the Tokyo Games and the people destined for the podium worries the Olympic Committee • Dolgofiat disappoints at European Championships in Gymnastics;
Chamtai-Salpeter was injured in the Israeli championship • One thing everyone agrees on: "The postponement of the games hurt us"
Chamtai Salpter
Photo:
Reuters
Three months into the opening of the Tokyo Olympics, and this past week has lit warning lights among some of our top athletes, especially those nominated for the paper for an Olympic medal.
Andrei Medvedev, who will advance this afternoon (14:00, Sport 5 Plus) to the finals of the European Jumping Championships, will try to provide comfort in the unfortunate performance of the delegation at the championships held in Basel.
Israel's greatest gymnast of the last generation, Artium Dolgofiat, fell on his face at the beginning of the ground exercise and did not retain his title as European champion.
Alex Miakinin did not qualify for the finals on the device, as did Misha Sorokin (multi-fight) and Ron Piatov who was injured and taken to hospital.
Lehi Raz finished in 22nd place in the final battle.
Team coach Sergei Weisburg admitted even before the championship that "there is no doubt that the postponement of the Olympics has hurt the team", and someone like him knew how right he was.
The leg pains were overwhelming
Luna Chamtai-Salpter is also considered one of our great hopes for a medal in Tokyo.
Last Thursday, she competed in the Israeli championship for the 10-kilometer run, and shortly before the middle of the run, in the fourth kilometer, she decided that she could not continue and stopped running.
Chamtai-Salpter felt pain in her right leg, in what turned out to be a stretch in the hip, and as mentioned, she decided to retire and not continue the competition and perhaps shatter the Israeli record.
Now Israel's best runner will have to hope that this is not something serious that will hurt its preparations, given the high expectations it has for the games in Tokyo.
Judo: What's going on with the team?
The judo team is about to send to the games in Tokyo this summer the largest delegation in its history, with one of the goals being to compete in the team competition as well.
However, it is already clear that a large part of the men's and women's delegation that will land in Japan for the Olympics will do so only to participate and not compete for a medal, certainly in the face of disappointing results at the last European Championships.
The leaders of the team know that in judo three months is a very long time to fix, and with the right pace of competitions it will be possible to return to the early evaluation and bring the athletes to a climax: two medals in men and a respectable participation - and no more - in the women's team.
