2020 Israel End-of-Season Meet
- August 19th – August 22nd
- Wingate Olympic Pool
- Short Course Meters (25m)
- Results
The Israeli Swimming Association held an ‘end-of-season’ meet at the Wingate Olympic Pool, with nearly 2,000 swimmers taking part. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the 4-day affair was conducted in a ‘capsule’ format, with no more than 200 swimmers set to compete within each time frame. All sessions were completed sans spectators.
At the end of this post you can see photos giving a feel of how safety protocols were followed.
Despite these atypical meet conditions, 5 Israeli national records went down at Wingate, with 17-year-old Anastasia Gorbenko responsible for three of them.
The teen clocked a speedy time of 24.53 in the 50m freestyle to notch a lifetime best and take gold. That performance overtook the previous national mark of 24.56 which Andrea Murez set nearly 5 years ago.
Just 30 minutes later, Gorbenko was again in the water, this time contesting the women’s 100m back. Touching the wall in a mark of 58.37, Gorbenko’s outing lowered Anna Gostomelsky’s Israeli standard of 58.44 she put on the board way back in 2008.
To complete her trifecta of golden records, Gorbenko took on the 100m breaststroke, registering a lifetime best of 1:05.42 for a new record. That slashed nearly an entire second from the previous national record.
Gorbenko also set junior records in her remaining events of the 200m breast (2:22.70) and 100m fly (58.34).
On the men’s side, it was Marcus Schlesinger who snagged a record-breaking effort of 22.77 to top the men’s 50m fly podium. That sliced .02 off of the Meiron Cheruti record of 22.79 set at the 2019 Short Course Nationals.
The women’s 200m back also saw a record bit the dust, courtesy of Aviv Barzelay, who touched in 2:06.97 for a new national standard.
ISA President, Simon Davidson, said at the end of the competition: “Israel swimming showed this week that no pandemic can stop us. The easiest thing to do was just pass and not have any meet under these conditions, but we decided to take this mission and show the world it’s possible even to have big meets like this under restrictions, and with massive care of the swimmers’ health.
“I’m proud to say we did it successfully, in and out of the water. Hopefully, we’ll be able to return to normal soon, but until then, we will continue holding competitions like this, doing what’s best for the athletes and for the sport.”
Timers with masks, Guy Yechiely, Israel Swimming Association
Israeli swimmers at 2020 End of Season meet, swimmers with masks, photo: Guy Yechiely, Israel Swimming Association
Yakov Toumarkin and David Gamburg, photo: Guy Yechiely, Israel Swimming Association
Congratulation Anastasia!!!
SCM or LCM? SCM is 25m.
SCM is 25 m . Breathtaking news!
I thought this was long course I almost died
Why didn’t she swim 200 IM?? 58 Fly and Back, 1:05 Breast, 24 Free should make a great IM’er!
Cross-training, I suppose. She is a great IM’er – she holds the National Record in the 200 IM in both LCM (2:11.92) and SCM (2:07.64) and 400 IM in both LCM (4:41.48) and SCM (4:35.82).