Tiktekno, summary of today's events in sports, 18.2/Sport1
The last day of the World Swimming Championships held in Qatar brought with it Israeli history in the form of a silver medal for Anastasia Gorbenko, who finished second in the 400 meter individual medley final with a time of 4:37.36 minutes.
The 20-year-old Gorbenko, who achieved fourth place in the half-distance final, proved that she belongs to the top of the world in the competition in which she became the first Israeli ever to qualify for two finals in one world championship (and four in total in her career) and, of course, the first medalist.
All this about five months before the Olympic Games in Paris.
Gorbenko advanced to the final from fifth place in the qualifiers and managed to improve her time and also break the Israeli record.
She led after the 100-meter backstroke, then lost the lead, but returned to first place and entered the final pool with the gold in her hands, but eventually lost by 22 hundredths to Britain's Freya Constance Colbert who took the gold.
The Italian Sara Franceschi finished with the bronze, 50 hundredths behind Gorbenko.
After the historic anointing and to boos from the Qatari audience, the Israeli said: "I am very happy to be here, to represent the country in difficult times. Being with the Israeli flag is worth a lot."
Signal for Paris.
Anastasia Gorbenko during the final/Reuters
Apart from the medal and her two finals, Gorbenko was also 27 hundredths away from the finals in the 200m backstroke, when she finished ninth in the semi-finals on Friday evening with a time of 2:10.94 minutes.
Israel did not present relay teams in this championship, but following the results in Qatar and the previous championship in Fukaoka, Japan, last July, for the first time in history there will be four relay teams in the upcoming Olympics: 4x100 free for men, 4x100 mixed medley, 4x200 free for women and 4x200 free for men.
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Anastasia Gorbenko
World Swimming Championships