Arik Ze'evi
Arik Ze'eviIsrael news photo: Flash 90

Israeli swimmer Yakov-Yan Toumarkin, an IDF soldier, finished in seventh place Thursday in the men’s 200-meter backstroke event in the London Olympics, with a time of 1:57.62. On Wednesday he set a new Israeli record with his time of 1:57:33 in the semi-finals. 

Israeli judoka Arik Ze'evi lost his first fight in the Olympics on Wednesday in under a minute. The loss means the end of this year’s Olympics for Zeevi.

On Tuesday, Israeli judoka Golan Pollack was defeated and was eliminated from the tournament. Ze'evi said at the time, “It’s a little hard to digest the fact that you can start a competition at 9:30 and finish it at 9:35, and that’s all.”

He expressed shock after his defeat. “I imagined a lot of scenarios during my career, most happy and some sad, but I never in my life imagined something like this – that I would end my Olympic career in under a minute,” he told IDF Radio (Galei Tzahal).

“I made a mistake, and I paid for it,” he continued. “That’s what’s cruel in judo. For the opponent, that’s the beauty of judo.”

Ze'evi is widely recognized as Israel’s most prominent judoka. He won a bronze medal at the 2004 Olympics.

Thursday afternoon, the team of Andy Ram and Yoni Ehrlich lost 7-6, 7-6 to top-rated Bob and Mike Bryan of the United States in the quarter-finals of the men's doubles tennis tournament. Earlier in the week Israeli Shahar Pe'er lost to Russia’s Maria Sharapova, and badminton player Misha Zilberman was eliminated.