Israel at the 2016 Summer Paralympics

Every participant at the Paralympics has their disability grouped into one of five disability categories; amputation, the condition may be congenital or sustained through injury or illness; cerebral palsy; wheelchair athletes, there is often overlap between this and other categories; visual impairment, including blindness; Les autres, any physical disability that does not fall strictly under one of the other categories, for example dwarfism or multiple sclerosis.[1][2] Each Paralympic sport then has its own classifications, dependent upon the specific physical demands of competition. Events are given a code, made of numbers and letters, describing the type of event and classification of the athletes competing. Some sports, such as athletics, divide athletes by both the category and severity of their disabilities, other sports, for example swimming, group competitors from different categories together, the only separation being based on the severity of the disability.[3]

Men’s Track and Road Events

Israel qualified one boccia player for the mixed Individual BC2 into the Paralympic tournament. Nadav Levi claimed his Olympic spot as one of top 12 individual eligible boccia player in the BISFed 2016 World Rankings as of 30 April 2016. [4][5]

Individual

Athlete	Event	Preliminaries			Round of 16	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Final/BM	Rank
		Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Rank	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score
Nadav Levi	Mixed individual BC2	Desilva-Andrade (BER) W 3-2	Sohn (KOR) L 2-5	2	Did not advance

With one pathway for qualification being one highest ranked NPCs on the UCI Para-Cycling male and female Nations Ranking Lists on 31 December 2014, Israel qualified for the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio, assuming they continued to meet all other eligibility requirements.[6][7]

Israel's women enter the tournament ranked 10th in the world.[8] The following is the Israel roster in the women's goalball tournament of the 2016 Summer Paralympics.[9]

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Brazil (H)	4	3	0	1	25	7	+18	9	Quarter-finals
2	United States	4	3	0	1	25	13	+12	9
3	Japan	4	2	1	1	13	8	+5	7
4	Israel	4	1	1	2	16	15	+1	4
5	Algeria	4	0	0	4	1	37	−36	0

8 September 2016 14:30	Japan	1–1	Israel	Future Arena, Rio de Janeiro Referees: Alexander Knecht (GER), Vilma Basinkaite (LTU)
	Wakasugi 1	Report	Mahamid 1

10 September 2016 18:45	Israel	10–0 (walkover)	Algeria

12 September 2016 10:15	Brazil	7–2	Israel	Future Arena, Rio de Janeiro Referees: Yoshinori Nii (JPN), Raquel Aguado (ESP)
	Amorim 4 Custodio 3	Report	Mahamid 2

13 September 2016 09:00	Israel	3–7	United States	Future Arena, Rio de Janeiro Referees: Raquel Aguado (ESP), Dawna Christy (CAN)
	Ben David 3	Report	Miller 4 Czechowski 2 Dennis 1

Quarter-final

14 September 2016 15:45	Turkey	15–5	Israel	Future Arena, Rio de Janeiro Referees: Dawna Christy (CAN), Raquel Aguado (ESP)
	Altınoluk 7 Özcan 4 Mercan 3 Ben David 1 (o.g.)	Report	Ben David 5

Israel earned a qualifying spot at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in this sport following their performance at the 2015 ICF Canoe Sprint & Paracanoe World Championships in Milan, Italy. Pascale Bercovitch who competed in 2008 in the sport of rowing and in 2012 in the sport of hand-cycling earned the spot for Israel. This marked the first time Israel sent a sprint canoeist to the Paralympics.[10][11]

One pathway for qualifying for Rio involved having a boat have top eight finish at the 2015 FISA World Rowing Championships in a medal event. Israel qualified for the 2016 Games under this criteria in the AS Women's Single Sculls event with a first-place finish by Moran Samuel in a time of 05:25.920. They qualified a second boat in the TA Mixed Double Sculls event with an eighth-place finish by Tsofnat Levanon, Barak Hazor, Nissim Nir Mayo, Shay-Lee Shulmit Mizrachi and cox Danielle Renny Palatin in a time of 04:12.140.[12][13][14] Samuel bases her training in Italy where she is coached by Paula Grizzetti. She also trains in Israel at the Daniel Rowing Center in Tel Aviv.[14]

Athlete	Event	Heats		Repechage		Final
		Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank
Moran Samuel	Women’s Single Sculls	5:21.36	2 R	5:22.96	1 Q	5:17.46	[15]
Reuven Magnagey Yuliya Chernoy	Mixed Double Sculls	4:20.62	5 R	4:28.60	4 Final B	4:21.23	3 Final B

One pathway for qualifying for Rio involved having a boat have top seven finish at the 2015 Combined World Championships in a medal event where the country had nor already qualified through via the 2014 IFDS Sailing World Championships. Israel qualified for the 2016 Games under this criteria in the Sonar event with a fourth-place finish overall and the first country who had not qualified via the 2014 Championships.[16][17][18] They qualified a second boat in the SKUD 18 event with a sixteenth-place finish overall and the sixth country who had not qualified via the 2014 Championships. The boat was crewed by Hagar Zahavi and Moshe Zahavi.[16][18][19]

The first opportunity to qualify for shooting at the Rio Games took place at the 2014 IPC Shooting World Championships in Suhl. Shooters earned spots for their NPC. Israel earned a qualifying spot at this event in the R5 – 10m Air Rifle Mixed Prone SH2 event as a result of the performance Doron Shaziri. It was the only qualification spot Israel earned at the event.[20][21][22]

Athlete	Event	Qualification		Final
		Score	Rank	Score	Rank
Doron Shaziri	Men's 50m Rifle 3 Positions SH1	1153	4 Q	437.5
	Mixed 50m Rifle Prone SH1	614.8	9	Did not advance

Qualifiers for the latter rounds (Q) of all events were decided on a time only basis, therefore positions shown are overall results versus competitors in all heats.

Men

Women

Athletes	Event	Heat		Final
		Time	Rank	Time	Rank
Inbal Pezaro	50m freestyle S5	40.82	5 Q	39.73	6
	100m freestyle S5	1:24.38	3 Q	1:24.04	5
	200m freestyle S5	3:03.35	4 Q	3:03.29	5
	100m breaststroke SB4	1:57.28	4 Q	2:01.02	6
	200m individual medley SM5	3:37.62	2 Q	3:38.20
Erel Halevi	50m freestyle S7	38.41	11	Did not advance
	100m freestyle S7	1:21.56	10	Did not advance
	400m freestyle S7	N/A		5:51.05	8
Yulia Gordiychuk	100m freestyle S9	1:10.51	20	Did not advance
	400m freestyle S9	5:13.02	13	Did not advance
	200m individual medley SM9	2:57.22	19	Did not advance
Veronika Guirenko	50m backstroke S3	1:30.97	13	Did not advance
	100m freestyle S3	2:59.28	13	Did not advance

Mixed

Men's singles

Athlete	Event	Preliminaries			Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Final/BM	Rank
		Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Rank	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result
Shay Siada	Singles class 4	Ozturk (TUR) L 0-3	Guo (CHN) L 0-3	3	Did not advance
Danny Bobrov	Singles class 6	Thainiyom (THA) L 0-3	Jensen (DEN) L 1-3	3	Did not advance

Women's singles

Athlete	Event	Preliminaries			Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Final/BM	Rank
		Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Rank	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result
Chagit Brill	Singles class 1-2	Rossi (ITA) L 0-3	Bootwansirina (THA) L 1-3	3	Did not advance
Caroline Tabib	Singles class 5	Abuawad (JOR) L 0-3	Paredes Albor (MEX) W 3-1	2 Q	Gu (CHN) L 0-3	Did not advance		5

Teams

Athlete	Event	Round of 16	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Final/BM	Rank
		Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result
Chagit Brill Caroline Tabib	Women's team class 4-5	Altıntaş, Duman (TUR) L 0-2	Did not advance			9

Israel qualified one competitors in the men's single event, Adam Berdichevski. Israel earned two spots in the quad singles event, with the spots going to Itay Erenlib and Shraga Weinberg.[23]

Athlete	Event	Round of 64	Round of 32	Round of 16	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Final/BM	Rank
		Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result
Adam Berdichevsky	Men's Singles	Saida (JPN) L 1-6, 2-6	Did not advance					33
Itai Erenlib	Quad Singles	N/A		Wagner (USA) L 4-6, 4-6	Did not advance			9
Shraga Weinberg	Quad Singles	N/A		Alcott (AUS) L 0-6, 0-6	Did not advance			9
Itai Erenlib Shraga Weinberg	Quad Doubles	N/A			Oliveira, Silva (BRA) W 6-0, 6-0	Taylor, Wagner (USA) L 4-6, 2-6	Burdekin, Lapthorne (GBR) L 6-3, 4-6, 6-7(2-7)	4