To dream big: about the Israeli athletes at the World Athletics Championships Israel today

After three years of waiting, which included a year-long postponement following the Corona virus, he will set off tomorrow night (Friday) for the biggest athletics event, with the opening of the World Championships.

For the first time, the championship will be held on U.S. soil, in the state of Oregon.

For ten days, about 2,000 athletes from 192 different teams will compete on the tracks.

Everyone wants a medal and a place on the podium.

The Israeli team will have a respectable representation in the competition with ten athletes, in one of the largest delegations that ever went to the event, only one athlete less than the championship in Spain in 1999.

In the blue-and-white balance three medals.

Two of them belong to pole vaulter Alex Averbuch, who was the 2001 world runner-up at the Edmonton Championships and won the bronze championship at Sevilla two years earlier.

The triple

climbed the podium at the championship, when she won a silver medal in Beijing 2015. The jumper, who was injured in the championship three years ago, arrives in great shape, and a few days ago broke her season record with a result of 14.47 meters.

Hannah Knyazeva-Minenko.

Comes in great shape, Photo: Oren Aharoni

The hope in the marathon

of the largest blue-and-white delegation will come from running the marathon.

will line up at the starting line early Monday morning to take part in the grueling 42.195-kilometer run.

Chamtai-Salpter will want to forget the last World Cup three years ago in Qatar, when it was then among the leaders and had to retire (just as happened to 27 other runners), due to the heavy heat.

The senior runner would also like to erase Tokyo from memory, when four kilometers to the end she felt stomach cramps, stopped running, and after continuing continued only finished in 66th place.

Chamtai-Salpter.

Try to forget the last championship, Photo: Alan Schieber

According to the final entry lists, Chamtai-Salpter is ranked fifth with a result of 2: 18.45 hours, but her national record, which stands at 2: 17.45 hours, places her as one of the top runners in Oregon, and if she manages to stay in the lead with Kenyan and Ethiopian running. , A medal would be a viable option.

In the men's parallel run on Sunday afternoon, the champion of Israel,

- who missed the Doha Marathon due to illness, will participate.

At the Tokyo Olympics, Hertz, who finished in 13th place, surprised and tried to get as high as possible.

, who also

missed the last championship due to injury, and

will also take part in the marathon.

"The work paid off"

The most intriguing Israeli competitor that will be worth following is the high jumper

, who is making his championship debut with a personal best, and the result of the year is 2.30 meters.

Only eight jumpers to compete in the US achieved a good result of their own in 2022. The 19-year-old Capitolnik, world champion and European Youth Champion, has already had a small taste in a big competition - when he participated in the Diamond League in Rome. Already on Friday night.

"The feeling ahead of the world championships is great," Capitolnik told Israel Today on the eve of the championships.

"It's a huge excitement to compete with all the great athletes in the world. The feeling is that the hard work has really paid off, and it gives tremendous satisfaction."

"I do not really have how to estimate the expectations from the competition, me and Anatoly (Shafran) are not trying to think about what will happen, and what needs to be done to bring about an achievement, we treat it like what it really is, my first big competition, and I'm here to gain experience. And I know I can make a good result, but the very fact that I'm here is already a success, so no result will

be considered a failure.

"The season has started strong, and it's always great. To feel you're in good shape and know there's still time to improve and progress, and get to the big competitions even more ready. Now that I'm here in the big competitions, the ones Anatoly and I worked towards all year, I feel "Automatics and they will arrive on their own in the moment of truth."

Another athlete who comes in top form is runner

, who just two weeks ago broke the Israeli record in the 100 meters in a competition in Switzerland, when she set an amazing result of 11.06 seconds.

So, she overtook Dutchwoman Daphne Schiffers - the former European champion - and finished first.

Wiseman.

Proved that she can screw up at the top, Photo: Oren Aharoni

The 23-year-old Weissman has managed to improve her record in almost every leap in recent times, and to understand how good the last result is, it is the sixth best in Europe.

If she had set such a time at the World Championships three years ago, she would have finished sixth in the world.

At the last World Championships in Doha three years ago, Weissman set a time of 11.27 seconds and was ranked 23rd, this time hoping to make history and advance to the semifinals.

The qualifiers will be held on Saturday night.

Slamvit in Ayulin-Tepri.

Returning from injury, Photo: Reuters

The last two representatives in the championship will be additional athletes who represented Israel at the last Olympics in Tokyo.

, Marrow's wife, returning from injury and running the 5,000-meter dash, trying to recreate her promotion to the final from Tokyo.

will participate in the 3,000-meter hurdles.

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