Vered Buskila

(1983 - )

Vered Buskila was born. May 23, 1983, in Bat-Yam, Israel.

Buskila is part of the highly promising Israeli 470 model women's sailing team along with Nika Kornitzky. Vered learned her sailing chops in Hapoel Bat-Yam and was soon recognized as a major talent. Her partnership with Kornitzky was an arranged marriage of sorts, hatched by the Hapoel sports organization. They emerged as the premier duo in Israel with a string of spectacular results for such a young team. In 2001, the team sailed in Ireland at the European Championships and took third place thus pulling of a major upset. In 2002 the twosome finished tenth in a credible performance and they created a major international buzz due to their relative youth. In the 2003 World Championship they went one better by achieving a ninth place finish.

They made the elusive transition from promising youngsters to contending adults in 2004. Buskila and Kornitzky finished third in both the European Championship in Germany and the World Championship in Croatia.

Buskila and Nika Kornitzky got off to a bad start in the Athens 2004 Olympics. The two were disqualified in the first race on August 14 for a false start. The Israeli team came in 12th in the second race, clocking in at 1:30. They ranked 18th in the competition on day one. Kornitzky and Buskila failed to improve significantly in the third race, held on August 15. They finished 16th with a pedestrian 3:25 performance. Race four was the worst yet with a horrendous time (12:55) and a 19th place finish The Israeli sailing team picked up the pace in their fifth race, held on August 17, as they finished sixth (7:15). As the winds which had disrupted the last few sails died down, the Israeli partners made better time in the calmer seas. Kornitzky and Buskila finished 12th in their seventh race with a solid performance (1:17). The 8th race saw the Israeli team finish fifth with their best time yet (0:50). The Israeli's enjoyed a relatively good sailing day on August 19, as they finished the ninth race 4th (1:36) and the tenth race 14th (2:41). Any hope the duo had of making a big finish was dashed in their eleventh and final race, as they finished 18th (3:09) and ranked 18th in the final standings.

Sources: Jews In Sports