Arik Ze’evi is on the verge of qualifying for his fourth straight Olympic Games after winning a gold medal at the Grand Slam event in Moscow on Sunday.The 34-year-old Israeli defeated Cyrille Maret of France in the final of the under-100-kilogram competition after beating 2009 world champion Maxim Rakov in the semis.Ze’evi’s achievement was marred by a slight controversy when Egyptian Ramadan Darwish refused to shake his hand and quickly walked away at the end of their quarterfinal bout.console.log("catid body is "+catID);if(catID==120){document.getElementsByClassName("divConnatix")[0].style.display ="none";var script = document.createElement('script'); script.src = 'https://player.anyclip.com/anyclip-widget/lre-widget/prod/v1/src/lre.js'; script.setAttribute('pubname','jpostcom'); script.setAttribute('widgetname','0011r00001lcD1i_12258'); document.getElementsByClassName('divAnyClip')[0].appendChild(script);}else if(catID!=69 && catID!=2){ document.getElementsByClassName("divConnatix")[0].style.display ="none"; var script = document.createElement('script'); script.src = 'https://static.vidazoo.com/basev/vwpt.js'; script.setAttribute('data-widget-id','60fd6becf6393400049e6535'); document.getElementsByClassName('divVidazoo')[0].appendChild(script); }The referee ordered Darwish back onto the floor, but the Egyptian still wouldn’t shake Ze’evi’s hand and left swiftly after giving the traditional bow.“In the last year I proved to myself and to everyone else that I’m among the world’s best,” Ze’evi said. “I hadn’t heard the Hatikva in a while and I was very emotional. The 300 rankings points I picked up for this win effectively clinch my place in the London Games and my goal now will be to continue to move up the rankings in order to get a better draw in the Olympics.”Ze’evi won a bronze medal at the 2004 Games in Athens and feels that he has a real shot at scaling the podium once more in London.“It is slightly pretentious to talk about winning an Olympic medal at this stage,” Ze’evi said. “But currently I’m at a level that could see me take a medal.”
