The first day of the Paris 2024 Olympics brightened the face of Israeli swimmer Ron Polonsky, who jumped into the pool in the 100 meter breaststroke qualifiers. Polonsky came to the race with low expectations, but at the end of his heat he already held a new Israeli record – 1:00.00, exactly one minute, which is an improvement of seven hundredths from the previous record he set.
After the rest of the qualifiers were over, Polonsky found out that his result was not only enough to be registered in the Israeli record book – but also to advance to the semi-finals – which will be held tonight at 22:12 – from 16th place, the last place leading to him.
After Polonsky’s qualification, the men’s 4×100 freestyle relay quartet jumped into the Olympic pool, consisting of three Israeli champions: Tomer Frankel in the 100 freestyle, Gal Cohen Groumi in the 100 butterfly and Denis Loktev in the 200 freestyle. Together with Alexei Glibinsky, the four stopped the clock at 3:15.41 minutes – a result that placed them in 14th place out of 16 teams in the qualifiers, more than two seconds away from qualifying for the final.
The quartet’s result was also more than a second slower than the Israeli record set by Frankel, Groumi, Loktev and Ron Polonsky at the World Championships in Fukuoka last year (3:14.03 minutes).
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