U.S. Teams Forging Ahead in the Maccabiah Games

With the Maccabiah Games just past the half-way mark, the United States closed out the swimming competition by forging ahead after trailing Israel during the first days of the competition.

After five days of neck-and-neck competition, the U.S. in the final day of water events ended up with 14 gold medals, three silver and three

bronze. Israel followed with nine gold medals, 13 silver and eight bronze. Australia came in with two gold, two silver and three bronze medals, while Sweden and Mexico barely made it with two gold medals each, no silver and one bronze medal for Sweden.

In the course of the swim competition many game records were smashed, including all of the remaining Mark Spitz heights. The last to go was the 100-meter freestyle won by America’s Andrew Saltzman of Bloomington, Ind., with a time of 52.33 as compared to Spitz’s 52.90 in 1969. Atlanta’s Joel Alan was second in 52.41.

United States swim captain Mike Spahir took the 44-meter individual medley in record Maccabiah time of 4.38, after which he announced his retirement from competitive swimming to pursue his aim of becoming a diplomat.

Both men’s and women’s relay events went to the U.S. yesterday in the 4×200-meter freestyle for men and the 4×100-meter medley relay for women. New records were established by both quartets, with the men timed at 7.5.28 minutes and the women timed at 4.35.40 minutes.

TRACK AND FIELD EVENTS

Track and field got underway yesterday with Gary Wilson of London giving England its first gold medal of the Games in the 100-meter dash, Manny Rosenberg, a former American sprinter, now in the Israeli army, tied for second place.

The 100-meter women’s sprint went to Brenda Kazinec of the University of Michigan who came in with a time of 12.49 seconds. Riva Gensch of the U.S. finished the 800-meter run in third place in 2.09.66 minutes. California’s Brian Mondshein established a new Maccabiah record of 52.07 seconds for the 400-meter hurdles.

Gary Willeby of the U.S. took the shot put gold with a toss of 18.02 meters followed by Howie Horowitz’s second place at 17.00 meters. In the long jump, David Donsens of the U.S. came up with a leap of 7.18 meters to wind up second to the Finnish champ, Tapani Taavitsainen.

The U.S. took third place in the 4×100 men’s relay while Paul Friedman could do no better than fourth in the 10,000 meter run. After 10 rounds of bridge, the U.S. group is in first place in the standings with 160 points with France pushing with 155 tallies.

BASKETBALL AND SOCCER

In team games the U.S. women’s basketball team reached the final against Israel by walloping two opponents by 50 points in each contest in the round robin tourney comprised of four countries, including Israel, Austria and France. Last night the men’s U.S. five trimmed Brazil 93-57 after walloping France, Argentina and Venezuela each by more than 60 points.

The U.S. soccer team is encountering stubborn opposition, being tied by Belgium 1-1 throughout the match. Against the favored Israel eleven the Americans found it difficult to crack the strong defense put up by the Club and went down 4-1. Ronnie Schneider, an Israeli who graduated from Adelphi University in New York and will be returning to live here, scored the sole tally for the American team on a penalty kick, 72 minutes into the game. In its third match, the U.S. trounced Finland 5-0.

The Israeli contest was played in the new Jack Winter stadium dedicated in Ramat Gan last Thursday. Winter is a Milwaukee philanthropist who donated the beautiful playing field to the municipality.

The U.S. dominated the freestyle wrestling games, with seven gold medals out of 10 and Canada taking the three remaining golds. There is a lack of grappling competition because several of the best Jewish wrestlers in the world refuse to mix with South African wrestlers for fear of reprisal and suspension by their national federations which have banned competition with South Africa over the apartheid situation.

Perhaps the biggest upset suffered by the U.S. came early in the tennis championships when number two seed in the net tourney, Richard Meyer, was knocked out by unseeded South African Mike Livshitz in the opening match. Livshitz, who attends Houston University, kayoed Meyer 6-4, 6-4.

Meyer was expected to reach the finals and play Israel’s Shlomo Glickstein who won his two matches against Hungary over the weekend in the Davis Cup matches. Hungary beat Israel 3-2, paving the way for Israel’s top racquet to go all the way in the Games.

In karate, Lelman Darryll of the U.S. took a first in the 75-80 kg weight division, also a first in the Kata-singles group. Frydman Howard knocked off second place in the 70-75 kg section while Falstein Joshua of the American squad copped a bronze medal in the 60-65 kg division.

Seven participants from South Africa, New Zealand, Israel, U.S., Argentina, France and Brazil took part in the judo competition with the Americans taking first and second place, followed by the participants from Brazil, France, South Africa and Argentina.

At the end of round one in golf, the U.S. leads with 299 to Canada’s second with 311 tallies. Joel Hirsch, in gold singles, leads with 73 points while the American, Torey Povain, is in third place with a 252 score. Renee Heading of the U.S. holds down second position in the women’s singles with 79 tallies.