Windsurfing: Fridman's Olympic qualification in serious doubt

Israeli must reach top 10 at World Championships and end competition ahead of countryman Tzuberi to have any chance of qualifying for Beijing.

By ALLON SINAI
gal fridman 88 (photo credit: )
gal fridman 88
(photo credit: )
Gal Fridman's hopes of defending his Olympic gold medal at this summer's games in Beijing suffered a further blow on Sunday at the Neil Pryde windsurfing World Championships at Takapuna beach in New Zealand. Fridman must finish among the top 10 in the championships and also end the competition ahead of countryman Shahar Tzuberi to have any chance of qualifying for the Beijing games. Each country can only send one participant to the Olympic competition and Tzuberi has already met the Olympic criteria by finishing in eighth position in last year's championships. Despite ending the first day of the event in 12th position, Fridman has still got plenty of work to do as he's already trailing the 20-year-old Tzuberi, who is in second position overall after finishing Sunday's races in first and third place respectively. The week long championships will end on Saturday with the medal race. Israel's third representative Nimrod Mashiah ended the day in eighth place after finishing his races in seventh and fourth place. In the women's competition, Ma'ayan Davidovitch is placed in 17th position and Lee Korzits in 33rd position. Davidovitch and Korzits must finish in the top 10 to qualify for the Olympics.