Swimmers Guy Barnea and Jonatan Kopelev on Saturday secured appearances in the finals of the 50-meter backstroke at the World Championships in Barcelona, Spain.
Sunday will mark the first time two Israelis will appear together in the finals at a World Championships meet.
Barnea won his semifinals heat with a time of 24.73, the third-best result in the semifinals, while the 21-year-old Kopelev posted the seventh-best time — 24.95.
Barnea, 25, made it to the 100-meter backstroke semifinals of the 2008 Beijing Games, but narrowly missed qualifying for London 2012.
Kopelev, the European champion in the 50-meter backstroke — he’s the only Israeli to ever win gold on the continental level — qualified for the 2012 Olympics but was forced to sit out the games due to an appendectomy.
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