South Africa sent one of its smallest tennis teams to Israel this year, with no open tennis players and only four Women’s Masters, and yet had one of the most successful tournaments.
Jacqui Boyd competed in the 35+ age group, Lynne Gottschalk in the 65+ and Anthula Markovitz and Maeve Samuels both in the 70+ age group.
Between the four participants, they ended up walking away with an astonishing 7 medals — 6 gold and 1 silver — an almost clean sweep.
Jacqui won gold in both the 35+ Women’s Singles and 35+ Mixed Doubles. This was Jacqui’s 4th Maccabiah, having first competed as a junior in 1993. She has medaled in every Games she has participated in, and with her success in this year’s Games, she has taken her total Maccabiah tally to 7 Tennis Medals (5 Golds and 2 Bronze’s).
Lynne Gottschalk, competing in her 2nd Games won gold in both the events she competed in, winning the 65+ Women’s singles as well as 65+ Women’s Doubles, partnered alongside fellow compatriot Anthula Markovitz.
Maeve Samuels, competing in her 3rd Maccabiah won the Ladies 70+ singles, having gotten revenge from 4 years ago when she lost in the finals and got the silver. Maeve also won silver in the 70+ Mixed Doubles event alongside her partner from Australia. What a special Maccabiah it was for Maeve, not only was it a huge success for her on the tennis court, but both her daughter and granddaughter competed for Israel in the Netball competition. Three generations all competing (and all winning medals) in the same event.
The Masters Tennis Women contributed six of the overall 19 Gold Medals that Team South African won.
