Swimming: Nevo finishes in 7th in semis of 200m. medley

21-year-old reached semifinals with record-breaking heat win, making up for an otherwise mediocre day in the pool for Israel.

By ALLON SINAI
gal nevo 88 (photo credit: Courtesy)
gal nevo 88
(photo credit: Courtesy)
Gal Nevo finished in seventh place in the semifinals of the 200 meters Individual Medley in Beijing on Thursday morning, with a time of 2:00.44 minutes. Nevo had reached the semifinals one day earlier after setting an Israeli record time of 1:59.66 minutes, almost three seconds better than his previous mark. Nevo showed his 11th place finish in the 400 meters Individual Medley earlier this week was no fluke, and won't be under any pressure on Thursday, knowing that he has already exceeded the expectations. "I wanted to go under two minutes and I knew I could do it," said Nevo, who hails from Kibbutz Hamadia. The 21-year-old, who trains year round at Arizona State University, finished the 200m I.M. in 10th place at the European Championships and his superb achievement on Wednesday makes up for an otherwise mediocre day in the pool for Israel. Anya Gostomelsky finished in 22nd position in the 100m freestyle, clocking a time of 55.18 seconds, two hundredths of a second slower than her Israeli record. "That's not a bad result and is very close to my best," she said. "I made some tactical mistakes and I paid the price." The disappointment of the day came in the 200m backstroke in which Itai Chama finished in 27th place, touching the wall after 2:00.93m, more than a second slower than Yoav Gat's Israeli record from 2003. "I'm stunned. I just can't believe it," said Chama. "This is extremely disappointing. I expected to go well under two minutes. I was focused and had excellent preparation, I can't understand this."