Judoka Arik Ze'evi, who won a bronze medal in the 2004 Athens Olympics and was Israel's greatest hope for a medal in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, was ousted from the games Thursday morning after losing to Brazilian world champion Luciano Correa in his first battle for a bronze medal.
Earlier, Ze'evi got off to a good start after beating his French rival Frederic Demontfaucon in the men's 100kg category; but went on to lose to European champion Henk Grol of The Netherlands in his second match.
In the Olympic pool, Israeli swimmer Alon Mandel improved his personal best and set a second, new national record at the men's 200-meter butterfly swim, coming in at 0:52:99m and was ranked 36 overall.
"I'm very satisfied with my result. I'm starting to get closer to world level," said Mandel.
Mandel's teammate, Gal Nevo was ranked 13th overall after the men's 200-meter individual medley, coming in at 2:00:43m.
Nevo, who also set a new national record, was the third Israeli swimmer to take part in the Beijing semi-finals after Nimrod Shapira Bar-Or (men's 200-meter freestyle) and Guy Barnea (men's 100-meter backstroke) who came in 15th in their respective meets.
Israeli sailors Shahar Tzuberi and Maayan Davidovitz, who are slated to compete in the individual men and women's RSX Windsurfing meets, enjoyed a day off, after their races were postponed due to weather conditions.
Tzuberi is currently ranked first in his class and has a substantial chance at Olympic gold.
Miki Sagui and Sa'ar Haas contributed to this report
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