European Games Update! After Linoy Ashram arrived back in Israel with her haul of four medals, two gold and two silver, Sergey Rikhter won the gold Medal in 10 meter air rifle shooting which also helped him meet the criteria for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. Rikhter will become a three time blue-and-white Olympian after representing Israel in the 2012 London Games as well as the 2016 Olympics that were held in Rio de Janeiro.

In Judo, Li Kochman won a Silver Medal in the -90kg category falling to Mikail Ozerler of Turkey in the final while Tohar Butbul just missed out on a medal as he finished 4th in the -73kg class. The acrobatic gymnast team of Tzalil Hurvitz, Or Armony and Yarin Ovadia finished in 4th as well in their all-around competition as Israel continued their strong performance at the games.

Tashawn Thomas will remain with Hapoel Jerusalem for the next two seasons as he resigned with the Reds until the end of the 2020/21 season. The 26-year old was named the MVP of the Israel State Cup Final and averaged 12.9 points, 7.5 rebounds and 1.4 blocks per game in Winner Basketball League action. In the Champions League #35 scored 11.8 points, 6.5 boards and 1.7 blocks per game.

“I’m very happy to play here for another two seasons,” Thomas told the team’s website. “There’s a great organization here that makes you feel like you are at home, so it’s just natural that I would want to stay at home. We had a nice season with some great moments with some unfinished business as well. We’ll get back from the break and work hard to complete our mission,”

Deni Avdija slated to go 5th in the 2020 NBA Draft is currently with the Under-20 Israel National Team as they prepare for the European Championship which will be held in Tel Aviv. The coach Ariel Beit Halachmi spoke about what the Maccabi Tel Aviv forward adds to the team, “Deni is doing well. He understands his importance and he has really been doing fine as he becomes part of the team. It’s not so easy to add a player of his stature to the National Team which had been practicing for some time, but he’s mature and intelligent and we saw that he played well together with the team in the second game.”

Nadav Zilberstein will stay with Nes Ziona for another season and guide the ship after taking the team to the playoffs this past campaign as well as deep into the FIBA Europe Cup competition.