Four years after retiring, Alex Averbukh won his second Maccabiah gold medal on Wednesday evening, finishing first in the pole vault competition at Hadar Yosef with a jump of 5.15 meters.
The 38-year-old two-time European pole vault champion officially ended his illustrious career after the 18th Maccabiah in 2009, but decided to come out of retirement for one last event so that his little girl could see him compete. Not only did she see her father jump on Wednesday, but she also saw him win, 12 years after he claimed his first gold medal at the Jewish Olympics. Averbukh, who was crowned European Champion twice in a row in 2002 and 2006, and won silver and bronze medals at the World Championships in 2001 and 1999 respectively, beat his young protegee Lev Skorish, who could only clear 5.00m. The 19-year-old Skorish won the bronze medal at the IAAF World Youth Championships in Donetsk, Ukraine last week with a personal best jump of 5.10m. “It was fun jumping against an athlete I coach,” said Averbukh. “Now I’ll go back to nurturing him because he has potential.” more at Jerusalem Post
