After 46 years, sprinter breaks Israeli women’s 100 meter record
Diana Vaisman’s time of 11.38 shaves 7 hundredths of a second off record set at Munich Olympics by Esther Roth, who was on hand to offer congratulations
Sprinter Diana Vaisman after she broke the Israeli women's 100 meter record on July 4, 2018. (Screen capture: YouTube)
A 20-year-old sprinter set a new Israeli 100 meter record Wednesday, breaking a record that had stood for 46 years.
Diana Vaisman ran the distance in 11.38 seconds at the Israel Athletic Championship in Tel Aviv, beating the time of 11.45 set by Esther Roth-Shahamorov at the 1972 Munich Olympics.
“What I most want to do is represent the country,” Vaisman said in a post-run interview. “I want to show people that there are other sports apart from basketball and soccer.”
She also stressed the pride she felt at having broken the record in Israel.
“I wanted to set this record in Israel, in my country, so that everyone could see it live,” she said.
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Sprinter Diana Vaisman (l) after she broke the Israeli women’s 100 meter record with former record holder Esther Roth-Shahamorov on July 4, 2018. (Screen capture: YouTube)
Roth-Shahamorov was on hand to witness the event and congratulated Vaisman, saying she felt as if a weight had been taken off her shoulders.
“I’m a fan of hers. It was a very impressive run, very convincing,” Roth-Shahamorov said in an interview with the Ynet news site. “What remains for her now is to represent the State of Israel with results like that. As she has shown, her fitness is excellent and we here in Israel are holding our breath because we are proud of every athlete who represents us.”
The former record holder continued by congratulating Vaisman, saying, “Now all that remains is to beat her own record.”
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