Israeli swimmers bag 2 gold medals in European para championship

Israeli swimmers won two gold medals Monday in the European Paralympic championship held in Dublin, Ireland.

Veteran athlete Inbal Pezaro, 31, came first in her 200 meter freestyle final with a time of 2:54.91 minutes, barely edging out Italian Monica Boggioni, who stopped the clock at 2:55.24.

The second Israeli success on the first day of the 2018 World Para Swimming European Championships came just an hour later, when 17-year-old Ami Dadaon won the 100m freestyle race, with a new personal record of 1:25.40.

Culture and Sports Minister Miri Regev tweeted her congratulations to the swimmers, writing: “You have brought honor to the State of Israel!”

https://twitter.com/ori_pearl/status/1029087504635518983

Dadaon, who made his breakthrough last year, was competing in his first men’s European championship.

Pezaro, who has been paralyzed since birth in her lower limbs, has represented Israel at the Paralympic games since Athens 2004, and has won a total of four silver medals and five bronze medals in those games.

She has also represented the country in countless other tournaments, with three gold medals in world championships — in 2002, 2006 and 2010 — as well as six silver medals and one bronze.

Could that have been any closer?! ????
Inbal Pezaro clinches the ???? #Dublin2018 pic.twitter.com/s6dehDExSZ

— Para Swimming (@Para_swimming) August 13, 2018

Both Pezaro and Dadaon are members of the ILAN Haifa swimming club.