History: Swimmer Tomer Frenkel broke the Israeli record in the 100-meter freestyle on Saturday at the Israeli championships held at the Wingate pool in Netanya.
Frankel, 22, set an astonishing time of 48.18 seconds, bettering Nimrod Shapira Bar Or's record by 75 hundredths. Bar Or set the record in Rome, Italy way back in 2009 at the World Championships.
For Frankel, this is also another criterion for the Paris 2024 Olympics, after securing his place in the 100-meter butterfly at the start of the upcoming Olympics.
The person who helped him achieve this great result, and was also faster than the previous record, was his teammate Denis Loktev, with an equally impressive time of 48.54 seconds. Gal Cohen Gromi was third with 49.28 seconds.
"Glad about the result," Frankel told Israel Hayom. "I've felt for a long time that a score of 48 seconds or less is equal, only that doesn't come to fruition. I thought I could swim much better, but I got weaker in the end. Dennis pulled me towards the end, without him I don't know if I would have done it."
Denis Loktev and Tomer Frankel. Mighty ointment, photo: Oren Aharoni
Has Nimrod Shapira already called to congratulate?
"He wrote to me successfully before the competition and was happy that it finally came to fruition. Why did it take so many years? Things sometimes don't go the way we want, we also have to gain confidence and come prepared."
In the women's parallel swim, newcomer Ayala Riley Spitz won with 56.28 seconds, ahead of Shain Goland who finished with a time of 56.34 seconds. She was third in the prestigious Hadar Karp swim with 57.51 seconds.
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Nimrod Shapira Bar-Or. His record was broken, photo: Alan Shaver
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