Olympics: Shapira takes 2nd, Pollack falls to France

Eleven Israeli athletes compete in tennis, swimming, judo, gymnastics as the London 2012 Olympic games continue.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
The Israeli delegation at the 2012 London Olympics 370 (R) (photo credit: Fabrizio Bensch / Reuters)
The Israeli delegation at the 2012 London Olympics 370 (R)
(photo credit: Fabrizio Bensch / Reuters)
Israeli athletes had mixed success Sunday morning in the 2012 London Olympics, with swimmer Nimrod Shapira Bar-Or coming in second in Heat 3 of the 200m freestyle competition and Judoka Golan Pollack losing to his French competitor on Sunday.
Bar-Or came in second to Canada's Blake Worsley in Heat 3 of the Olympic men's Swimming 200m freestyle. Shapria finished with a time of 1:48.60 to Worsley's 1:48.14 at the 2012 London Games on Sunday at the Aquatics Center in London.
Golan Pollack lost to France's David Larose at the Olympic men's Judo 66kg last 64 at the 2012 London Games on Sunday. Canada's Sasha Mehmedovich beat El Salvador's Carlos Figueroa to reach the next round.
Israel's Yakov Toumarkin came sixth in Heat 4 of the Men's swimming 100m backstroke at the London Olympics on Sunday, but failed to make the cut for the next round.
With a time of 54.91, Toumarkin was behind the lowest qualifying swimmer, Spain's Aschwin Wildeboer, who finished at 54.36.
Eleven Israeli athletes were set to compete in Olympic games on Sunday.
In tennis, Shahar Pe’er will face a tough first-round encounter against world No. 3 Maria Sharapova. Andy Ram and Yoni Erlich, who played Spain’s Marc Lopez and Marcel Granollers in the first round of the doubles event Saturday evening, will progress to the second round.
Badminton player Misha Zilberman, who lost his first round on Saturday, will compete with Singapoiran Derek Wong.
Ukranian-born Valeria Maksyuta will represent Israel in the early round of gymnastics, and five Israeli swimmers will take part in various swimming events: Amit Ivri, Imri Ganiel, Nimrod Shapira Bar-Or, Yakov Toumarkin and Yonatan Koplav.
Click for full JPost coverage
Click for full JPost coverage
Israeli athletes bowed out of Olympic competition early on Saturday, but not before Judoka Tommy Arshansky impressed by advancing further than expected in his Olympics debut.
In the first competition featuring an Israeli athlete, swimmer Gal Nevo finished a disappointing tenth in the Olympic men's swimming 400m individual medley with a time of 4:14.77, failing to qualify for the next round. Nevo placed behind Kosuke Hagino (Japan) and Thiago Pereira (Brazil) in Heat 3.
Allon Sinai and Reuters contributed to this report.