Israel's Lee Korzits finished first in the eighth of ten races in the
women's windsurfing competition at the London Olympics on Saturday,
moving into second place overall in the competition.
Korzits trails only Spain's Marina Alabau. The top ten qualifiers will take place in a medal race scheduled for Tuesday.
Earlier on Saturday, Israeli sprinter Donald Sanford finished fifth in his qualifying heat of the men's 400 meter race on Saturday, failing to qualify for the semi-final.
Sanford
finished fifth in his heat with a time of 45.71 seconds. Israeli media
reported Saturday that Sanford said his shoes had been stolen prior to
the race, negatively effecting his finishing time.
The Los
Angeles native met Israeli basketball player Danielle Dekel while the
two were at Central Arizona College before moving on to run for Arizona
State. The two married in 2008 and have lived in Kibbutz Ein Shemer for
three years, becoming parents to daughter Amy earlier this year. This
past March Sanford was given the International Amateur Athletics
Federation's (IAAF) approval to represent Israel.
In an earlier
heat of the men's 400 meters, South Africa's Oscar Pistorius became the
first double amputee to compete on the track at an Olympic Games,
finishing second in his heat with a season's best time.
Nicknamed 'Blade Runner', Pistorius races wearing carbon fiber prosthetic blades after being born without a fibula in both legs.
The
25-year-old, who is also in South Africa's 4x400 relay team, raced to
huge cheers and looked comfortable throughout as he qualified for the
semi-finals with a time of 45.44 seconds - beating a previous season's
best of 45.52.
In 2008, Pretoria-born Pistorius successfully appealed against an IAAF decision to ban him from running in able-bodied events.
In other track and field news, Israeli pole vaulter Jillian Schwartz did not reach the final of the women's event at the London Olympics on Saturday, failing on all three of her attempts to pass the 4.5 meter bar.
Schwartz had passed 4.1 meters on her first attempt, 4.25 meters on her third attempt and 4.4 meters on her first attempt.
Schwartz, an Illinois native, represented the US in the 2004 Athens Olympics. She received Israeli citizenship in 2009.
Also scheduled to compete for Israel on Saturday was windsurfer Shahar Zubari , as well as Gil Cohen and Vered Bouskila in the women's 470 class of sailing, and Gidi Kliger and Eran Sela in the men's 470 class of sailing.
Allon Sinai contributed to this report.