Gold! Israeli women’s swimming team finishes 1st in European Championship

25 Israeli swimmers participate in championship held in Belgrade, Serbia

Providing comfort and pride to its war-weary country, the Israeli women’s swimming team won a gold medal in the 200x4 freestyle relay at the 2024 European Aquatics Championships on Monday.

Twenty-five swimming competitors from Israel are participating in the championship held in the Serbian capital of Belgrade.

The team of Anastasia Gorbenko, Daria Golovaty, Leah Polonsky and Ayala Spitz won the finals with the excellent result of 7:51.83 minutes.

The four swimmers topped their second-place finish in the qualifiers of 8:04.85 minutes with an outstanding Finals performance, garnering a first Israeli medal on the first day of the competition.

Israel’s men’s relay team in the 200x4 freestyle also competed in the final but was slightly disappointed after finishing the semi-final in second place with a time of 7:11.53 minutes.

The team of Denis Loktev, Bar Soloveitchik, Eitan Ben Shetrit and Gal Cohen Groumi finished 19 hundredths away from a bronze medal, coming in at fourth place with a time of 7:09.92 minutes.

In another impressive feat, Israeli swimmer Ron Polonsky improved on his Israeli record in the 100-meter breaststroke, setting the new record at 1:00.07 minutes, an improvement of 17 hundredths. He qualified for the semi-finals from third place but was eliminated and didn’t reach the finals.

Miron Heruti finished 1rst in his division in the 50-meter butterfly semifinals and qualified for the final.

Israel is now tied in second place with Lithuania on the medal table, behind Greece which won one gold and one bronze medal so far.

The swimming competition at the Aquatics Championships, which also includes events in open-water swimming, artistic swimming, and diving, will conclude on June 23.

This is the fourth time in history that Israel has won a European gold medal, after Gorbenko’s gold in the 200-meter medley in 2021 and 2022 and Yonatan Kopelev’s gold in the 50-meter backstroke in 2012.