Gal Nevo carries Israel’s hopes of ending a decade-long medal drought in the European Swimming Championships in Budapest over the next seven days.Israel has sent 12 swimmers to Hungary, but only Nevo has a reasonable chance of reaching the podium and following in the footsteps of Eitan Urbach, Miki Halika and Yoav Gath – the last Israeli to take a medal at this event, winning a bronze in the 200- meter backstroke 10 years ago.“I hope our swimmers make a lot of finals and personally I really want to win a medal,” said Nevo, the Individual Medley expert, who became the sixth Israeli to claim a medal at the European Short Course Swimming Championships in December, finishing third in the 400-meter IM final.“I’ve already scaled the podium at the short course championships and I hope to emulate this at the long course event. There are a lot of expectations from me, but I like it that way.”Guy Barnea, the backstroke specialist, believes he also has a chance of winning a medal.“There will be a lot of surprises in these championships and I’m hoping to reach some finals and possibly even claim a medal,” Barnea said.Alon Mandel and Amit Ivri are two other notable Israeli swimmers competing in Budapest and national team coach Leonid Kaufman is hoping for good performances all around.“We can expect a lot of good things from our delegation,” Kaufman said. “In a certain situation Nevo can win a medal, but he will have to swim very fast and his rivals slightly slower.“These are the first championships without the full-body swimsuits so it is difficult to tell what will unfold.”One swimmer who will be missing from the championships is Nimrod Shapira Bar-Or due to an escalating dispute with the Israel Swimming Association.On Sunday, Anastasia Gloushkov and Inna Yoffe finished the synchronized swimming duet final in Budapest in seventh position.
