Kroytor gold, Toumarkin silver in Singapore

Another successful weekend for Israel’s delegation to the inaugural Youth Olympics.

By ALLON SINAI
DIMA KROYTOR 311 (photo credit: Wong Maye-E/AP)
DIMA KROYTOR 311
(photo credit: Wong Maye-E/AP)
It was another successful weekend for Israel’s delegation to the inaugural Youth Olympics, with Dima Kroytor and Yakov Toumarkin claiming gold and silver medals, respectively, to take the blue-andwhite’s medal tally in the games to five.
The 17-year-old Kroytor, who won the gold at the World Youth Championships last July, finished first in the high-jump competition on Saturday, clearing 2.19-meters in his third attempt.
In the pool, Toumarkin came second in the 200m backstroke race on Friday, touching the wall after 1:59.39 minutes, to take his second silver medal in the Olympics after finishing as runner-up in the 100m back as well.
In the men’s basketball tournament, played in a 3-on-3 format, Israel lost 24-21 to Croatia in the quarterfinals.
In other events, Odane Skeen of Jamaica ran 10.42 seconds to win the boys’ 100 gold Saturday, beating Masaki Nashimoto of Japan and David Bolarinwa of Britain. Josephine Omaka of Nigeria won the girls’ 100 gold ahead of Myasia Jacobs of the United States and Fany Chalas of the Dominican Republic.
Ekaterina Bleskina of Russia beat out Michelle Jenneke of Australia to win the gold in the 100-meter hurdles while Luguelin Santos of the Dominican Republic took gold in the 400 meters, ahead of Ruan Greyling of South Africa.
The inaugural Youth Olympics in Singapore involves 3,600 athletes ages 14 to 18 from 204 national Olympic committees competing in 26 sports.
Meanwhile, the International Olympic Committee said on Saturday that up to 17 countries have expressed interest in hosting future Youth Olympics, including the United States and others from Africa and Latin America.
The inaugural youth winter games will be held in Innsbruck, Austria, in 2012 and the summer games in Nanjing, China in 2014. Lillehammer, Norway, which hosted the 1994 Winter Olympics, is the only city that has expressed an interest in hosting the 2016 winter games, and has until November to submit a formal bid, the IOC said.
The IOC's Olympic Games Executive Director Gilbert Felli said Saturday that an African and Latin American country as well as "some cities in the United States" have expressed interest in hosting the event in 2018 and beyond, but would not name them.
“We have had discussions with the USOC [U.S. Olympic Committee] and some cities in the U.S. who have the idea for the winter or summer games," Felli said. "One day, they would like to come with a bid.”
IOC spokesman Mark Adams said the IOC is emphasizing the use of existing facilities to make the youth event more attractive to cities with smaller budgets.
“It gives them a chance to participate, to take part in the whole Olympic ideal,” Adams said. “That is why there is interest from cities which would probably never have thought of getting involved and could never see themselves as serious contenders for staging an Olympic event.”