2020 ISRAELI OLYMPIC QUALIFIER
- Wednesday, December 16th – Friday, December 18th
- Wingate Institute
- LCM (50m)
- Live Results
The third and final day of Israel’s Olympic qualifier featured only distance events, with Anastasia Gorbenko winning a 400 IM and Bar Soloveychik the 1500 free.
Israel is hosting a series of four Olympic selection meets. This week’s is the second, following the Rotterdam event two weeks ago. The selection process will continue through two more late selection meets next June.
Yesterday, Gorbenko punched a likely ticket to the Tokyo Olympics with a 54.38 win in the 100 free that tied the FINA A cut down to the hundredth. Today, she showed off her excellent range, winning the 400 IM in 4:47.42.
That’s well off her own personal best of 4:41.48, which stands as the Israeli record. But it also caps an excellent meet for Gorbenko, who was sharp in the sprints but also devastating in longer distances. Gorbenko is just 17 years old.
Soloveychik, 20, went 15:40.47 to win the 1500 free. That’s about six seconds from his best time, but won the race by eight seconds. Soloveychik’s career-best is only about seven seconds from the Israeli record and about six from the FINA A cut.
17-year-old Orian Gablan won the women’s 1500 free in 17:26.83. That’s a drop of about three seconds from her best. Meanwhile Gal Cohen Groumi won the men’s 400 IM in 4:28.11. The 18-year-old Groumi cut about two tenths off his career-best swim.
