Action heats up in the pool

Israel’s swimmers set two new national records in the first day of action at the world championships in Kazan, Russia.

By ALLON SINAI
Updated: AUGUST 3, 2015 10:01
Israeli swimmer Amit Ivry (photo credit: REUTERS)
Israeli swimmer Amit Ivry
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Israel’s swimmers set two new national records in the first day of action at the world championships on Sunday, but failed to progress past the morning heats in Kazan, Russia.
Ido Haber clocked a time of 3:52.08 minutes in the men’s 400 meters qualifiers, improving his previous Israeli record by 26 hundredths of a second. However, his time was only good enough for 36th place overall, almost five seconds slower than the eighth and final qualifier for the final.
Israel’s 4x100m freestyle relay team of Liran Konovalov, Yakov Toumarkin, Ziv Kalontarov and David Gamburg improved the previous national record by 12 hundredths of a second. But their time of 3:18.31m was only the 17th fastest overall, meaning they missed out on a place in the final and on an Olympic berth handed to the top 12 teams.
Amit Ivry disappointed in the first of her five events in Kazan on Sunday, ending the women’s 200m individual medley heats in 34th place with a time of 2:18.35m, more than five seconds slower than her personal best.
Meanwhile, China’s Sun Yang defended his men’s 400-meter freestyle title at the on Sunday, the first of a possible four-gold sweep for the 23-year-old.
Sun, the five-time world champion, clocked three minutes 42.58 seconds to take gold as he overtook Britain’s James Guy in the closing stages.
Sun will compete in three more individual events this week, the 200m, 800m and 1,500m freestyle.
Katie Ledecky, the 18-year-old who graduated from high school in June, had a far easier final to negotiate as the American coasted to gold in the women’s 400m freestyle.
Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom set the first world record of the eight-day meeting in the women’s 100m butterfly.
Sjostrom’s time of 55.74 seconds in the semifinal broke the previous record of 55.98 seconds set by Dana Vollmer, of the US, at the London 2012 Olympics.