Israelis fail to make a splash at Euro Swimming Champs

Israel’s swimming team ended a disappointing European Championships in Berlin at the weekend.

Yakov Toumarkin, who has won bronze at previous championships, finished ninth-fastest in the 200-meter backstroke semi-finals on Friday, a time of 1:58.83 seeing him miss out a top-eight place – and final berth – by 37 hundredths of a second.

Elsewhere, Yaron Shagalov finished the 50m breaststroke in 10th place in a time of 27.83, 13 hundredths from qualifying for the final.

Amit Ivri had twice broken the Israeli record in the women’s 50m breaststroke twice on Saturday, though it wasn’t enough to see her gain a place in the final, as she finished in tenth place, 11 hundredths of  a second away from reaching the final.

She also missed out on the 100m butterfly final by 11 hundredths, came within eight hundredths of the 50m butterfly final, missed out in the 100m breaststroke final by five hundredths of a second, and was 1.07 seconds away from a place in the top eight in the 200m individual medley.

Keren Siebner ended the 200m butterfly in 16th place.