Four Israeli windsurfers qualified today (Friday) for the medal races in windsurfing at the Princess Cup in Palma – and all of them will start competing from the quarter-final stage. From the women’s team, Kati Spichkov and Sharon Kantor will compete, and the men’s team will feature Tom Reuvani and Yoav Omar. Tomorrow the medal cruises will take place.
In the women’s IQ foil competition, Katie Spichkov entered the medal heats at the last minute from ninth place, after finishing one of the heats in fifth place, which moved her up the rankings because it was a choppy day at sea and the leaders also lost points.
The young Sharon Kantor, who led the competition in its early days, deteriorated to tenth place overall and eventually entered the medal races. Shahar Tzuberi’s Israeli team, which is one of the strongest teams in the world, will compete in Palma with two representatives, while opposite three other French and two British women qualified for the medal races. Shahar Tibi who finished in 13th place and Tamar Steinberg who finished in 15th place were left out.
In the men’s IQ foil competition, windsurfer Tom Reuveni improved his position, with a series of good sailings (9,8,4) and jumped three places in the ranking, from seventh place overall to fourth place. He tried to break into the top three to secure himself a ticket to the semi-finals, but was left out due to a significant gap of 15 points from the third in the ranking, so he will compete from the quarter-finals so that the path to the podium will be more difficult.
Yoav Omar also showed improvement and entered the top ten at the last minute, so he will also compete in the quarterfinals. Omar entered the medal races at the last minute from 15th place, after finishing the last three races in fifth, seventh and 37th places, when the last race was thrown and not counted in the count. Tomorrow the medal races will take place with the four Israelis when everything resets and the best two from the quarter-finals and semi-finals will advance to the next stage.
Every medal or good result is important for the Israeli windsurfers, because it will provide an important score for the internal competition within the national teams, in preparation for deciding who will be the representative who will compete on behalf of the State of Israel in the Olympic Games next year. In addition, for the men, the result in Palma may decide who goes to the pre-Olympic competition, which will be a sort of “dress rehearsal” for the real thing.
In Kate Foyle for women, Gal Zuckerman finished in ninth place and entered the medal rounds as well. Unlike windsurfing, it is a different and more difficult format. Zuckerman entered the semi-finals, but will compete with no points, so she will actually need three wins to qualify for the final.
In the 470 medley sailing, the team of Nitai Hasson and Noa Lasri were left out of the medal race in Palma, after the two finished 12th overall at the end of the regular competition. It is true that in the last four cruises they finished in a high position (5,5,2,7) but they woke up too late, so their results at the beginning of the competition were less impressive.