Israelis Rake in the Gold Medals at International Competitions

From martial arts and rhythmic gymnastics to windsurfing, chess and even synthetic biology, Israelis had a golden November.

By Abigail Klein Leichman, Israel21c

Gold is the color of November 2020 for a variety of Israeli athletes and chess players.

Judoka Peter Paltchik, 28, was crowned European Judo Champion on November 21 in Prague. Tal Flicker won the silver medal.

Israeli windsurfer Yoav Cohen, 21, won the 2020 European Windsurfing Champion, held in Portugal November 24.

Shahar Zubari, a member of Israel’s Olympic sailing team, won a silver, as did Israeli teammate Katy Spychakov in the women’s category. This was Zubari’s fifth European Championship medal. Zubari (also spelled Tzuberi) also won the bronze medal in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Taekwondo warrior Avishag Samberg, 19, won a gold medal in the European Clubs Championship in Croatia on November 25. Nimrod Krivishkiy won a silver medal, while Ori Patishi and Alon Katz won bronzes.

Artistic gymnast Linoy Ashram, 21, won a gold medal in the all-around competition at the European Championships in Kiev, Ukraine, on November 29.

It was the first all-around European gold in Ashram’s career; she won the all-around silver in 2018 and the all-around bronze twice. Ashram was a gold medalist in two events at the 2019 European Championships, and is considered a top contender for an Olympic medal in 2021.

The Israeli rhythmic gymnastics team also earned its first all-around gold medal at the European Championships, for a stunning hoops and clubs routine by Ofir Dayan, Yana Kremernco, Juliana Tilgin, Shai Ben Ruby, Bar Shpushnikov and Karin Waxman.

And junior team member Daria Atamanov won a gold medal for her performance in the clubs event.

Israeli chess grandmaster Evgeny Postny, 39, won the first place in an online chess solidarity event with Arab countries, November 25.

And finally, the sTAUbility team from Tel Aviv University won the gold medal in the “Best Software Tool” category at the iGEM (International Genetically Engineered Machine Competition) virtual world championship in synthetic biology. The 12-member sTAUbility team is led by Prof. Tamir Tuller, head of the Laboratory of Computational, Systems and Synthetic Biology, and captained by Karin Sionov.