At World Championships, Barnea equaled best ever finish by an Israeli; Nevo failed to reach 2nd Championship final after bout of food poisoning.
By ALLON SINAIguy barnea 248(photo credit: BASWIM)
Guy Barnea equaled the best ever finish by an Israeli at the swimming World Championships on Sunday, finishing the 50- meters backstroke final in sixth position in Shanghai.The 23-year-old, who ended Israel’s decade-long medal drought at the long-course European Championships last August when he took a bronze in the 50m back in Budapest, improved his semifinal time by eight hundredths of a second to complete Sunday’s final in 25.01 seconds.That was good enough for a joint-sixth finish with Nichola Thoman of the US, who recorded an identical time.Nevertheless, Barnea has still yet to meet the criteria for the 2012 London Games, as the 50m back is not an Olympic event.He came within one hundredth of a second of booking his place in London in the 100m back heats at the start of the championships and will have another chance of meeting the Olympic Qualifying Time set by FINA for the London Games at the Israeli swimming championships next week.Also Sunday, Gal Nevo failed to reach his second straight World Championship final in his signature event, the 400m individual medley, only finishing 23rd overall in a time of 4:25.96 minutes after suffering from food poisoning the previous day.Nevo, who had already secured his place in London by making the semis of the 200m IM, was told by the team doctor not to swim on Sunday.Despite barely sleeping the previous night, he insisted on racing, only to run out of energy midway through the competition.
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