New Immigrant Athlete Wins Israel's
First-Ever World Championships Medal

by Simon Griver

Alex Averbukh leapt into the history books in August when he became the first-ever Israeli to win a medal in the World Athletics Championships in Spain. The 24 year-old, who jumped 5.80 metres to take the bronze medal, had only made aliyah two months previously from Irkutsk in Siberia.

"I understand that my achievement in Spain has brought a lot of pleasure to Israel," he told journalists, "and that makes me very happy."

Averbukh’s aliyah was the result of intensive scouting by Israel sports coach Lev Psavkin, who works in cooperation with the Jewish Agency, to bring leading Russian speaking Jewish athletes to Israel.

Psavkin has originally made contact several years ago with Averbukh’s older brother Yevgeny who was a leading 800 meters runner. But Yevgeny was tragically killed in a road accident and attention shifted to Averbukh, who was a decathlon specialist. But several months before the World Championships in Seville, Spain, Averbukh decided to make two fateful decisions that would change his life. The first was to make aliyah, and the second was to concentrate on pole vaulting - his strongest talent within the ten disciplines that make up the decathlon.

"I have a strong sense of Jewish identity," said Averbukh. "I feel very good about being in Israel," he said. "And this has been reflected in my performances."

Shortly after making aliyah in June, Averbukh broke the Israeli pole vaulting record of 5.76 meters with a leap of 5.80 meters at the Hadar Yosef stadium in Tel Aviv. This record was also despite the fact that Israel is very strong in the pole vault. The previous record was held by Constantin Semyonov, another new immigrant who has been plagued by injury since reaching Israel. And new immigrant Danny Krasnov, who came to Israel in 1991 from Russia, has a personal record of 5.75 meters and has reached the last two Olympic pole vaulting finals and the last two World Championships finals.

In the two leading grand prix tournaments after the World Championships in Stockholm and Berlin, Averbukh finished fifth on each occasion with leaps of 5.70 and 5.80 meters respectively.

Averbukh then returned to Siberia for a month’s training where he will wed his girl friend Natasha before returning to Israel.

"My main target now is the 2000 Olympics," explained Averbukh. "By improving my technique I honestly believe that I can leap six meters and that would give me a chance of the gold medal. I understand that no Israeli has ever won an Olympic gold medal before. That would be quite a feat for my new nation."