Windsurfer Friedman wins Israel’s first ever Olympic gold

25/08/2004 Gal Friedman took the gold medal for the windsurfing event in Athens on Wednesday, Israel’s first ever gold at the Olympics. Friedman – the first Israeli to win two Olympic medals after winning the bronze in 1996 – finished the last of the 11 races in second place, but took the gold by scoring 42 points. The silver went to Nikos Kaklamanakis of Greece, who finished with 52 points and Nick Dempsey of Britain won bronze. After Friedman crossed the finish line, he took a victory dip and then wrapped himself in an Israeli flag when he came out of the water. „It feels like a dream,” Friedman said after his victory. „I planned the race well. My strategy was to pass ahead of the Brazilian, who was close to me. He missed a wind shift, and I was able to sail away from him. I saw that he was under pressure, which is evident by the fact the fact that he came in fourth place. We knew that he could fall because of lack of experience, Friedman said of the race. „I’d like to thank the entire country of Israel. I didn’t want to celebrate before crossing the finish line; afterwards everything came out,” he said. Residents of Friedman’s hometown of Karkur, near Hadera, streamed to the family’s house to celebrate, Israeli media said. „It’s very, very hard to believe that he succeeded in doing this,” said Friedman’s father, Uri. President Moshe Katsav congratulated Friedman and invited him for a meeting to give him a „hug.” „I’m happy together with everyone about this win,” Katsav said. „We all had great expectations that Gal would do this.” „Today, Gal simply raced with a lot of confidence and he deserved this victory,” said his trainer Gur Steinberg. „Thanks to the entire country for all its support… This shows that we can beat other countries.” Going into the race, the athlete under the greatest pressure was Brazilian Ricardo Santos, who had a two-point lead over Friedman and was five points ahead of Kaklamanakis. Santos finished 17th in Wednesday’s race. After winning the 10th race Monday, Santos – Friedman’s runner-up at the world championship at Pataya in 2002 – jumped for joy because he thought his gold medal was in the bag. His coach, Fernando Armel, who has seen plenty of last-minute changes in the last race, calmed him down. Also Wednesday, Roei Yellin qualified for the Men’s K1 1,000 meter final, after finishing third in the semifinal. The final will take place next Tuesday. BPI-info