Records Fall & Israeli Roster Grows At Olympic Trials

2024 ISRAELI OLYMPIC TRIALS

• June 5th – June 8th
• Wingate Institute, Netanya, Israel
• LCM (50m)
• Meet Central
• Results

The 2024 Israeli Olympic Trials began this week with swimming action kicking off Wednesday at the Wingate Institute.

Six Israeli swimmers have already nailed Olympic qualification times at international competitions, including Anastasia Gorbenko and Tomer Frankel. For the remainder, however, this competition provides a last-chance opportunity to notch their names on the nation’s roster for Paris.

Pre-Qualified Swimmers

• Anastasia Gorbenko – women’s 200m/400m IM, 100m/200m back
• Tomer Frankel – men’s 100m fly, 100m free
• Denis Loktev – men’s 200m free
• Gal Cohen Gromi – men’s 100m fly
• Martin Kartavi – men’s 50m free
• Miron Haruti – men’s 50m free

Right off the bat, 22-year-old Aviv Barzelay set a new personal best in the women’s 200m backstroke en route to qualifying for the Olympic Games.

Contesting the heats, Barzelay, formerly of Texas A&M University, punched a result of 2:09.63. This marked her first-ever foray under the 2:10 barrier, crushing her previous lifetime best of 2:10.42 set at the 2022 World Championships.

Barzelay’s outing also dipped under the 2:10.39 World Aquatics Olympic Qualification Time needed to join Gorbenko on the roster.

20-year-old Adam Maraana busted out the swim of his life to take the men’s 100m backstroke event.

Maraana stopped the clock at a mark of 53.60, equaling the Israeli national record Yakov-Yan Toumarkin put on the books in 2017.

Although Maraana added time in the final, ultimately taking gold in 53.97, his morning swim cleared the OQT of 53.74 to make the Paris cut.

Additional Notes

• David Grechik fell painstakingly shy of the OQT in the men’s 200m back. He produced a time of 1:57.53 in the heats followed by 1:57.60 in the final, with both falling just a hair off the 1:57.50 needed for Paris.
• The men’s 100m free saw Daniel Namir get it done for gold in 49.64, followed by Yoav Romano who touched in 49.77 as the silver medalist. Alexey Glivinskiy rounded out the podium in 49.81.
• Olympian Andrea Murez topped the women’s 100m free podium in a time of 54.96. Leah Polonsky was next to the wall in 55.62 while Shane Golland nabbed bronze in 56.25.
• Although he missed the Olympic threshold, Bar Soloveychik established a new national record en route to winning the men’s 400m free. Soloveychik registered a winning effort of 3:47.32 to undercut his previous PB and Israeli standard of 3:48.55 logged last year.