Israeli gymnasts claim historic silver medal

The Israeli national gymnastics team claimed an historic silver medal at the Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championships on Sunday.

Yuval Filo, Alona Koshevatskiy, Ekaterina Levina, Karina Lykhvar and Ida Mayrin recorded a combined result of 16.983 points, and were beaten to gold by Spain which registered a score of 17.433, at the tournament in Izmir, Turkey.

Having won bronze in the all-around final at the European Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan earlier this year, the team enjoyed a memorable tournament over the past week, which also saw them finish the all-round final in fifth, and the three balls and two ribbons competition in sixth.

Team captain Koshevatsky said: “We are delighted. This is an amazing achievement, we have accomplished this after many months of hard work.

“After finishing in third place at the European Championships we have finished in second place at the World Championships and it is amazing we did so in Turkey despite all the difficulties we had competing here.”

IGA chairman Ophir Pines-Paz said: “This is the greatest achievement in the history of Israeli gymnastics. It’s important to remember how hard we had to fight in order to get the team to these championships. It brings us great pride to see the Israeli flag waving on Turkish soil.”