Two bronze medals are awarded in all of the fight sports.
The first is awarded to the winner of the traditional bronze medal fight, between the two losers of the semifinals. The second is awarded to the winner of the repechage contest, a four-man mini tournament comprising the four losers of the quarterfinals.
The 26-year-old Shmailov was defeated in his quarterfinal fight against Georgian judoka Vazha Margvelashvili.
In his first repechage match, Shmailov defeated Slovenian judoka Adrian Gomboc with an ippon in extra time, giving him the immediate victory.
He then fell to Cargnin in the bronze medal match.
For Shmailov, who grew up in Hadera, this is actually the first Olympics. So far his peak achievements have been at a young age - with two gold medals at the European Under-21 Championships in 2014 and 23 in 2014. Precisely the last year has been relatively good for him, with winning a silver medal in the Masters Tournament 2021. Before that, in 2019 there were also bronze medals in the Grand Slam tournaments in Paris and Viktorsburg.
The medal would have been Israel's second, after Avishag Semberg won bronze on Saturday in taekwondo.
It was the second consecutive close podium miss for Israeli judokas, after Shira Rishony also lost in a battle for the bronze medal in the -48kg event.
Gili Cohen lost to her Belgian counterpart Charline van Snick on Sunday morning, eliminating her from the competition.
Cohen made it to the round-of-16, meaning that if she had won she would have advanced to the quarterfinals in her weight class of under 52 kg.
“I felt good, but I made a mistake,” said Cohen. “She’s good on the ground and that’s how it is in judo. My hand hurts, but my heart hurts more.”
In cycling, Omer Shapira was close to winning a medal, staying in the top three for almost the entire women’s road race. However, the 27-year-old Israeli rider from Moshav Ein HaBesor fell off the pace in the final four kilometers and finished in 24th place.
Shapira, the five-time Israeli road bike champion, is a professional rider from a first-class team in Germany. In 2019 she finished 13th in the World Cup time trial. In addition, she participated in the Giro d’Italia for women and in the one-day race of the Tour de France.
Also, 17-year-old Israeli gymnast Lihie Raz took part in the qualifying round of the artistic gymnastics competition.
She had a clean performance on the balance beam for a score of 12.066, she garnered a 12.400 in her floor routine and an excellent 14.233 on the uneven bars. While Raz did not advance, she is viewing Tokyo as a warm-up for hopefully being a contender in the Paris 2024 Games.
Meanwhile, Israeli windsurfers Katy Spychakov and Yoav Cohen saw strong starts to their Olympics, both sitting in fifth overall after the first three races in the women's and men's windsurfing competitions, respectively.
The 21-year-old Cohen, the 2020 European champion, finished in 12th place in the first race and in a respectable sixth place in the second. In the third race, he showed great improvement and finished in second place.
Spychakov finished her first race in third place, her second in fifth place and her third and least successful cruise in ninth place.
The competitions will be decided on Monday with the final three races.
Also, 18-year-old Shay Kakon also participated in the Women’s Laser Radial, finishing the first race in 39th place and the second in 13th place en route to 29th place overall.
In surfing, 19-year-old Anat Lelior, finished fourth in her two shortboard heats and failed to qualify for the final rounds.
After finishing 14th in 2016, Israeli shooter Sergey Richter finished 27th in the men’s 10-meter air rifle event.
In the pool, Israeli swimmer Anastasia Gorbenko reached the semifinal in the 100-meter backstroke. The 17-year-old finished fourth in her heat with a result of 59.90 seconds, 12 hundredths of a second off the Israeli record which gave her the 12th place in the qualifiers, with the first 16 qualifying for the semifinals which are slated for early Monday.
For the men, Yaakov Toumarkin and Michael Laitarovsky (both 100m backstroke) and Dennis Loktev (200m freestyle) also were in action, but were all eliminated at the end of their qualifying rounds. Toumarkin, in his third Olympics, finished 31st with a time of 54.81 seconds, Laitarovsky finished in 36th place with a result of 55.34s and Lokten recorded a 1:47.68-minute time to come in 27th.