Israeli doubles win gold without coach
The Maccabiah tennis finals in the men’s doubles and mixed doubles events were held yesterday in Jerusalem. Surprisingly, Israel’s head coach Shlomo Glickstein did not show up but his team did pretty well by itself.
The men’s doubles gold was won by Israelis Amit Inbar and Sa’ar Steel, who beat Canadians Jeremy Langer and Miron Mann 6-3, 7-6.
The mixed doubles final was won by Richard Moss (Great Britain) and Jacky Boyd (South Africa), who beat Israel’s Daniel Skripnick and Sarai Shternbach 7-6, 4-6, 10-6.
In the women’s doubles semifinals, Anna Berlin and Sarai Shternbach (Israel) defeated Madison Gordon and Maya Masir (USA) 6-3, 7-6. The second semifinal was between Ester Masuri and Libi Mash (Israel) and Stefani Falcon and Gina Zorick (USA), with the locals winning 6-2, 6-3 to set-up an all Israeli final on Monday.
The games were played under a dust cloud which engulfed the court due to a new bridge being constructed in Malha. But a little bit of dust is better than what happened in the last Maccabiah where a military exercise nearby distracted some of the players with colorful explosions.
Amit Inbar (28) arrived at the Maccabiah especially from the US, where he plays and coaches at UCLA.
“It’s a great opportunity to scout and recruit young talents and make new connections with Jews from all over the world. It’s a very important event for me,” Inbar said.
The USA will face Argentina in the final of the open basketball tournament on Monday. The Americans, guided by Hapoel Jerusalem coach Brad Greenberg, edged Israel 77-73 on Sunday, while Argentina beat France 89-79.
In the open water swimming, Yuval Safra, who had just returned from the world championships in Barcelona, won the 5km race, held in the Kinneret. He set a time of 53:16.60 minutes. Ya’akov Glickman won the silver and Idan Fridberg the bronze.
Tal Snonit, who formerly played for the Israeli water polo national team, took the gold in the Masters category (35+). Rotem Shimron from Israel won the women’s category in 59:38.30m, ahead of Rachel Noels from the USA and Rotem Amit from Israel.
In water polo, the American team defeated Israel 9-3 in the final. It was the first water polo match ever played in the new Olympic pool at Wingate.
Argentina will face the USA in the soccer final on Monday. Argentina beat Mexico 3-2 in a thrilling match, scoring in the 88th and 90th minutes. The USA defeated Canada 5-0.
In ice hockey, Canada won the gold in the open tournament, crushing the Americans 7-1. Canada also beat the Americans 3-2 in the juniors tournament. The USA got some payback by defeating Canada in the Masters category 7-4.