Sailers Kornicki and Buskila fail in Olympic medal bid

470 Class duo finish fourth behind Brazilians; windsurfer Tzuberi forces his way back into medal contention.

By ALLON SINAI, JPOST.COM STAFF
Kornicki Buskila 88 (photo credit: )
Kornicki Buskila 88
(photo credit: )
Nike Kornicki and Vered Buskila came up short in their attempt to claim Israel's first medal at the Beijing Olympics on Monday, finishing second in the medal race behind Brazilians Fernanda Oliveira and Isabel Swan. The Israeli 470 Class sailing duo needed to finish two places ahead of the Brazilians to leapfrog them, but Monday's result meant instead that they had to settle for a credible fourth position. Meanwhile, Israeli windsurfer Shahar Tzuberi forced his way back into contention for an Olympic medal. Tzuberi began the day poorly, finishing in 19th place in race eight. Nevertheless, he then staged a remarkable recovery, winning race nine, and climbing to fourth place overall with two races to go, including Wednesday's medal race. It came after a disastrous day on Sunday when Tzuberi struggled in the pouring rain, managing to finish the first race of the day in sixth position, but only coming 19th in the second. He appealed the result of the second race, claiming that Greek Nikolas Kaklamanakis had hit him, but it was turned down, meaning he has 31 negative points, one more than Frenchman Julien Bontemps and two less than Britain's Nick Dempsey. In the women's Neil Pryde competition on Monday, Ma'ayan Davidovich, finished fourth and ninth in her eighth and ninth races respectively and climbed to tenth position overall with two races to go, including the medal race.