Frenkel takes high-jump title, but not at Olympic standard

Danielle Frenkel cleared 1.89-meters to win Thursday’s high jump competition at the 75th Israeli Athletics Championships.

By ALLON SINAI
Danielle Frenkel 311 (photo credit: IAA website)
Danielle Frenkel 311
(photo credit: IAA website)
Danielle Frenkel will have to wait a little longer before she books her flight to London for next summer’s Olympic Games after only managing to clear 1.89-meters to win Thursday’s high jump competition at the 75th Israeli Athletics Championships at Hadar Yosef Stadium in Tel Aviv.
The 23-year-old was hoping to improve her national record of 1.94m by one centimeter to set the Olympic criteria more than a year before the start of the Games.
However, she failed three times at 1.92m on Wednesday and will now turn her attention to the World Championships in Daegu, South Korea, which get underway on August 27.
“My aim is to set the criteria at every competition I jump in,” said Frenkel, who reached the finals of the recent outdoor and indoor European Athletics Championships.
Former Israel champion Ma’ayan Foreman was also far from her best, jumping 1.81m, eight centimeters below her personal record.
“I’m physically ready to jump higher, but it’s just not coming together,” Foreman said. “I jump much better in training but can’t repeat it in competitions.”
Also Thursday, Olga Lansky won the women’s 200m final in a personal-best time of 24.38 seconds to complete the sprint double after also taking the 100m on Wednesday.
“I’m really happy to have improved my personal best by nine hundredths and I hope to improve it even further at the European junior Championships in a couple of weeks,” the 18- year-old said.
The men’s 200m was won by Reuben Majola (21.68s), but Omri Harush (21.80) was crowned as national champion as Majola is still waiting to receive citizenship after marrying an Israeli.
Yochai Halevi won his second gold medal of the championships on Thursday, leaping 7.79m in the long jump competition.
“I was slightly tired today, but this event was a bonus for me,” said Halevi, who set a personal best on his way to winning the triple jump final on Wednesday.
“I recorded a season best tonight so I’m delighted with that.”
Also Thursday, local fans were left to reminisce about the days of Alex Averbukh and Danny Krasnov as Yavgeniy Olhovsky won the national pole vault title with a jump of just 5.20m.