Yuval Filo, Alona Koshevatskiy, Ekaterina Levina, Karina Lykhvar and Ida Mayrin registered a score of 17.7 in the clubs and hoops exercise and 17.350 in the ribbons for an overall tally of 35.050, good enough for second place behind only Russia (35.300).

The national team will have a chance to scale the podium twice more on Sunday after also advancing to the group final in the clubs and hoops, as well as the ribbons.

The Israel roster was rebuilt last year and is hoping to reach the Olympics all-around final for a third straight time in Rio 2016.

With most of the world’s top teams hailing from Europe and competing in Baku on Wednesday, the current blue-and-white squad was given plenty of reasons to believe it could even claim an Olympic medal next summer.

Wrestler Ilana Kratysh won Israel’s first medal in Baku when she finished in second place in the women’s 69kg freestyle competition on Monday before shooter Sergey Richter took a bronze in the men’s 10-meter air rifle event on Tuesday.

"We are proud of what we achieved, but this is now over and it is time to return to training because we still have two more finals on Sunday,” said rhythmic gymnastics team captain Koshevatskiy. "We never think about medals, but only about how to put on our best performance.”

Israel’s duo of Sean Faiga and Ariel Hilman began their participation in the beach volleyball competition on Wednesday with a 2-0 triumph (21-18, 22-20) over Turkey.

 

(jpost)