While Artem Dolgopyat was celebrating Israel’s second-ever Olympic gold medal and the baseball team was preparing for South Korea, Hanna Minenko was competing in the Triple Jump final as she looked to win her first Olympic medal.
Despite recording her season-best jump of 14.60 meters, it wasn’t enough to take a place on the podium as Minenko finished the competition in sixth place. Yulimar Rojas from Venezuela broke the Olympic record with a distance of 15.41m on her first jump, which stood until her jump in the sixth round, where she set a world record of 15.67m to capture the gold medal. Patricia Mamona from Portugal leaped a distance of 15.01m to win the silver while Ana Peleteiro grabbed the bronze with a distance of 14.87m.
Minenko had booked her place in the final with a distance of 14.36m in Friday’s qualification round, which marked the third time that the Ukrainian native advanced to the Triple Jump Olympic Final.
At the 2016 Rio Olympics, Minenko finished in fifth place with a jump of 14.68m while in 2012, when she was still representing Ukraine, a distance of 14.56m was good enough for fourth place and just shy of a bronze medal.
Minenko’s first of six jumps was 14.52m while her second gave her the 14.60m, which temporarily placed the Israeli in fifth place. Jumps 3 and 4 went 14.27m and 14.29m, respectively, while her fifth and sixth were both disqualified as the opening ceremonies flag bearer gave it her all to finish her third Games on the podium.
On Monday, at 3:40 p.m. Israel time, Selamawit Teferi will be participating in the Women’s 5,000m final after setting an Israeli record of 14:53.43m in the qualifying round this past Friday.
The 27-year-old was born in Ethiopia is married Marhu Teferi – who will be participating in the Men’s Marathon – making them the first blue-and-white married couple taking part in an Olympics Games. Following Monday’s final, Selamawit will prepare for the 10,000m, which is slate to be run on Saturday.
Also in Athletics, Adva Cohen took part in the Steeplechase qualification round and finished in last place in heat 3 with a time of 10:05.95m, which wasn’t good enough for the 25-year-old to advance to the next round.
Noya Baram and Shachar Tibi continued along in races 7 and 8 in the Women’s Two-person Dinghy 470 Race, but finished in fourth and 11th places, respectively, good for eighth place overall currently. The duo has collected 55 points and is 10 points off of fourth place overall with two more races remaining on Monday before the medal race.
Should Baram and Tibi put in a solid performance they could be in the mix for the final races of the competition, is slated to be run on Wednesday.
Israel will be back in the pool on Monday as the Artistic Swimming competition gets under way, with Eden Blecher and Shelly Bobritsky representing the blue-and-white.
Over in the men’s basketball tournament, the Czech Republic – coached by Israeli Ronen Ginzburg – was knocked out of the tournament with a 1-2 record as the quarterfinal matchups were set. Slovenia will face Germany, Spain will take on the United States, Italy will tip-off against France and Australia will go head-to-head against Argentina.
Also on Sunday, a memorial service was held for the 11 Israeli athletes who were murdered by terrorists at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games.
The service was attended by the President of the International Olympic Committee Thomas Bach along with Anke Spitzer and Ilana Romano, the widows of Andre Spitzer and Yossef Romano, who were two of the terrorist’s victims.
Spitzer acknowledged and thanked Bach for recognizing the 11 athletes at the opening ceremonies last week, marking the first time since the tragedy occurred while also reciting the “Shehecheyanu” blessing to commemorate the momentous occasion.