By Abigail Klein Leichman 

(Israel21C via JNS) Judoka Peter Paltchik, 28, was crowned European Judo Champion on Nov. 21 in Prague. Tal Flicker won the silver medal.

Israeli windsurfer Yoav Cohen, 21, won the 2020 European Windsurfing Champion, held in Portugal on Nov. 24.

Shahar Zubari, a member of Israel’s Olympic sailing team, won a silver, as did Israeli teammate Katy Spychakov in the women’s category. This was Zubari’s fifth European Championship medal. Zubari (also spelled Tzuberi) also won the bronze medal in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Taekwondo warrior Avishag Samberg, 19, won a gold medal in the European Clubs Championship in Croatia on Nov. 25. Nimrod Krivishkiy won a silver medal, while Ori Patishi and Alon Katz won bronzes.

Artistic gymnast Linoy Ashram, 21, won a gold medal in the all-around competition at the European Championships in Kiev, Ukraine, on Nov. 29, becoming the first athlete to win the prize in decades who was not from a former Soviet country or Bulgaria.

It was the first all-around European gold in Ashram’s career; she won the all-around silver in 2018 and the all-around bronze twice. Ashram was a gold medalist in two events at the 2019 European Championships, and is considered a top contender for an Olympic medal in 2021.

Ashram edged out Alina Harnasko of Bulgaria in a nearly unprecedentedly close tie-breaker.

A 21-year-old Israeli defense forces veteran born to Mizrahi and Sephardic parents, Ashram will represent Israel at the Tokyo Olympics, which has been rescheduled to summer 2021.

The Israeli rhythmic gymnastics team also earned its first all-around gold medal at the European Championships, for a stunning hoops and clubs routine by Ofir Dayan, Yana Kremernco, Juliana Tilgin, Shai Ben Ruby, Bar Shpushnikov and Karin Waxman.

And junior team member Daria Atamanov won a gold medal for her performance in the clubs event.

Israeli chess grandmaster Evgeny Postny, 39, won the first place in an online international chess championship, besting 89 chess players from 20 countries.

And finally, the sTAUbility team from Tel Aviv University won the gold medal in the “Best Software Tool” category at the iGEM (International Genetically Engineered Machine Competition) virtual world championship in synthetic biology. The 12-member sTAUbility team is led by Prof. Tamir Tuller, head of the Laboratory of Computational, Systems and Synthetic Biology, and captained by Karin Sionov.

Judoka Inbar Lanir was named European Judo Champion in Poreč, Croatia on Nov. 12 in the under-23 category; Maya Goshen won the silver medal.

This article was first published by Israel21C.

Main Photo: Israeli gymnast Linoy Ashram competes at the European Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships in Kyiv, Nov. 29, 2020. (Sergei Supinsky/AFP via Getty Images)