Nevo finishes 7th, smashes national record

The 23-year-old set his second Israeli record of the day in the final, clocking a time of 4 minutes and 5.26 seconds.

By ALLON SINAI, ASSOCIATED PRESS
GAL NEVO 311 (photo credit: FIsrael Swimming Association)
GAL NEVO 311
(photo credit: FIsrael Swimming Association)
Gal Nevo proved yet again why he is regarded as Israel’s top swimmer on Thursday evening, finishing in seventh position in the 400-meter individual medley final at the short-course world championships in Dubai.
The 23-year-old set his second Israeli record of the day in the final, clocking a time of 4 minutes and 5.26 seconds, over a second-and-a-half faster than the time he recorded in the morning heats, which in itself was four seconds better than Miki Halika’s former record which stood for 10 years until Thursday.
Amit Ivri finished in 11th place in the women’s 50m butterfly semifinals on Thursday, touching the wall after 26.05s.
Meanwhile, Ryan Lochte snapped swimming’s world record drought Thursday, setting the first individual mark since high-tech bodysuits were outlawed at the start of the year.
The American won the 400IM final in 3 minutes, 55.50 seconds, smashing the previous record set by Laszlo Cseh of Hungary by nearly two seconds.
Never one to celebrate wildly, Lochte simply let out a smile when he looked up at the scoreboard and saw the result, then pumped his fist.
“I wasn’t really expecting that,” Lochte said. “I was going out there to race the field. I had no idea where I was at during the race.”
While China’s women’s squad set a world record in the 800 freestyle relay Wednesday, no other world marks – none in the long-course pool – have been set in 2010.
In 2008 and 2009, nearly every record in the sport was broken multiple times.
Two other Americans also came away with golds Thursday.
Natalie Coughlin held off two Chinese challengers to win the 100 backstroke in a meet record 56.08 seconds and Rebecca Soni beat Leiston Pickett of Australia by 0.01 seconds in the 50 breaststroke.
Stanislav Donets of Russia won the men’s 100 back in a championship record 49.07.
Camille Lacourt of France finished 0.73 behind and held on to his silver medal after a protest cleared him of a disqualification for swimming underwater too long.
Olympic champion Cesar Cielo dominated the 50 free semifinals, clocking a meet record 20.61 – 0.49 ahead of Marco Orsi of Italy and 0.56 in front of Frederick Bousquet of France.
Olympic 100-meter champion Alain Bernard of France qualified in a tie for sixth, 0.65 back, while American sprinter Nathan Adrian finished 11th and failed to make the final.