Aug. 5, 2002
BERLIN – Highlighted by a phenomenal swim in the 1500-meter freestyle, Georgia Tech senior Shilo Ayalon set a pair of national records for his native Israel at the 26th European Swimming Championships, which concluded Sunday in Berlin, Germany.
In Thursday’s 1500 free prelims, Ayalon posted a time of 15:18.31, which was good for sixth place and an Israeli national record. He shattered the previous mark by over 20 seconds and recorded a time that will likely rank among the top 25 in the world.
This swim earned Ayalon a trip to Friday’s final, in which he finished eighth with a time of 15:30.82.
Ayalon opened the competition on Monday with an Israeli record swim of 3:56.76 in the 400-meter free to place 16th.
In his final swim of the meet, Ayalon went 4:30.24 in prelims of the 400 IM, which was good for 17th place.
These performances should come as no surprise, as Ayalon earned All-America honors for the second consecutive season with an eighth-place finish in the 1650 free at the 2002 NCAA Championships. He will try to improve on that finish this season, as Tech opens the 2002-03 campaign on October 25 against Emory.
-GT-
