Sportsman & Sportswoman of the Tournament

The Israeli Bowling Federation yesterday awarded the Sportsman and Sportswoman Awards, named in memory of Greg Small and Yetty Bennett. This award is voted on by all competitors in the bowling competition.

The very deserving winners were Meryl Romeu from USA and Australia's Josh Small. It was a very emotional award ceremony, and both are fantastic people.

Masters Medals!!

Wow, what a day!!

Finally, success on the lanes in Israel, with a fantastic Gold Medal to Phil Sachs in the men's Masters competition.

In another spectacular effort, Lisa Benedykt won a Bronze Medal in the women's Masters.

The format of the Masters was vastly different to that of previous Maccabiah, with the top 24 men in the All Events and 14 women making it through to the Masters. The competition was then in the format of a head-to-head tennis tournament, where a player would be seeded and drawn to play someone at the other end of the seedings in a best-of-3 game match. The winner proceeded, and the loser eliminated.

In the women's, Lisa, Debbie Sachs and Jackie Vilensky won their first round matches, whilst Lena Sachs and Kerrie Schwartz lost. To see the results from this round, click here.

In the quarter finals, Debbie & Jackie both lost in the deciding third game, whilst Lisa continued on into the semi-finals. To view the results of the quarter finals, click here.

With Lisa Benedykt into the semi-finals, with three Israelis, she couldn't quite match it, but earned herself a much deserved Bronze Medal. Liat Vizenfeld went on to win the Gold Medal in the final. To view the semi-final results, click here. To view the results of the Masters final, click here.

In the men's Masters, Phil Sachs and Daniel Zalcman were the two Australian who had qualified in the top 24. With Phil qualifying in the top 8, he was given a bye in the first round, and Daniel won through to Round 2 in two games. The results of Round 1 can be viewed here.

Round 2 saw both Phil and Daniel win through to the Quarter Finals, but both had to pull out something special to win in three games. To view the results of Round 2, click here.

Phil went on to win his Quarter Final match in two games to proceed through to the Semi Finals, however Daniel lost in three games to one of the eventual finalists, Isaac Amkie from Mexico. To view the Quarter Final results, click here.

In the Semi Finals, Phil knocked over one of the tournament favourites, Or Aviram from Israel in three games to see his way through to the Gold Medal playoff. For the results of the Semi Finals, click here.

In a tense final, Phil Sachs went on to win the Gold Medal in two games. A tremendous effort! For the results of the final, click here.

All Events

The women's and men's All Events were finalised, with Shahaf from Israel winning the women's and Isi from Mexico winning his third Gold Medal.

Due to the number of entries, all of the Australian women will compete in the Masters event, whilst Phil Sachs and Daniel Zalcman will represent the Australian men. Phil performed extremely well to finish in the top 8 and earn a first round bye.

Unfortunately, Tony Aarons missed the top 24 by one place, whilst Josh Small and Matt Doobov were only a couple of spots further back.

The final standings (in PDF format) for the women's All Events can be found here.

The final standings (in PDF format) for the men's All Events can be found here.

Teams

After a brave fight by the Australian women, they were eventually overcome by a much more experienced Israeli lineup for the Gold Medal. It was a tremendous effort by Debbie, Lisa, Lena, Jackie & Kerrie, who led the teams competition into the fifth game.

The final results of the women's teams competition (in PDF format) can be found here.

The men's competition came down to the wire, with the Israeli team edging out the Mexicans by only 15 pins for the Gold Medal. Team USA performed very well to be a further 106 pins behind to win the Bronze Medal. Australia and Great Britain finished 4th and 5th respectively.

The final results of the men's teams competition (in PDF format) can be found here.

Photos of the medal presentations to follow.

Trios

Both the ladies & men's trios competitions ended in turmoil, with one of the Israeli teams in each competition being disqualified for changing their lineup during the tournament.

Whilst the men's placings were not affected, the disqualification of the second placed women's team, meant that the Australian trio of Debbie Sachs, Lena Sachs and Jackie Vilensky were elevated to the silver medal.

The men's competition was taken out by the number one Israeli team, with the USA second, and Mexico winning bronze. The best placed Australian team was Phil Sachs, Daniel Zalcman & Matt Doobov in fifth place.

The results of the women's trios (in PDF format) can be found here, whilst the updated women's All Events standings can be found here.

The results of the men's trios (in PDF format) can be found here, whilst the updated men's All Events standings can be found here.

Magen David Adom

As a coincidence, outside the bowling centre during the week, was a Magen David Adom vehicle that had been donated by families from Melbourne, including my cousin Nikki Silman!! Small world.

Men's Doubles

The men's doubles competition was a tight affair, with Isi Eskenazi and his father David from Mexico, taking out the gold. This was Isi's second gold after winning the singles.

The Israeli duo of Or Aviram and Aviv Alfital won the silver medal, with Matthew Halpern and Jim Lewis from USA taking out the bronze.

Phil Sachs and Tony Aarons were the best performed of the Australians, finishing in 8th spot. Phil's series of 1201 was the highest series bowled today.

For a full list of the men's doubles results (in PDF format), click here.

For an update of the men's All Events standings, click here.