Israeli sailors just miss medal

Israeli women sailors narrowly missed a medal at the Beijing Olympics.

Nike Kornecki and Vered Bouskila finished fourth Monday in the 470 two-person dinghy medal race in Qingdao, which left the pair fourth overall in the rankings – one place away from Israel’s first medal of the 2008 Games.

Despite finishing ninth in the medal race, Australia’s Elise Rechichi and Tessa Parkinson won the gold.

Also Monday, Israeli flag-bearer Michael Kolganov advanced to the semifinals in the flatwater men’s kayak single 1000-meter event with a fifth-place finish in his heat. Kolganov won the bronze medal in the 500 meters at the 2000 Games.

Rami Zur, representing the United States for the second time after competing for the Israeli Olympic squad in 2000, finished in sixth place and also qualified for the semifinals. Kolganov and Zur also will compete in the men’s 500 meters kayak singles on Tuesday.

Anastasia Gloushkov and Inna Yoffe of Israel finished 15th in the duet technical routine in synchronized swimming, a non-medal event.

“I think we did great with our preparation and training,” Gloushkov said after the performance. “We covered every aspect of the routine and I think we managed to show that successfully.”

The women said they chose an upbeat routine.

“Many countries choose to be aggressive,” Gloushkov explained. “They have scary music from big scary movies, horror movies. We just decided to go as far away as possible from that. We wanted to make everyone smile more.”