VIDEO / Israeli swimmer Gal Nevo reaches Olympic 200m medley semifinals

Israeli swimmer Gal Nevo placed first in his men's 200m individual medley heat Wednesday at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, smashing the old Israeli record by three seconds with a time of 1:59:66, and securing a spot in Thursday's semifinal.

Nevo had already made the semifinals in the men's 400m individual medley, where he placed 11th.

Meanwhile, fellow Israeli swimmer Anja Gostomelsky finished in second place in her 100m freestyle heat with a time of 55:18, two-hundredths of a second slower than her Gostomelsky placed 22nd overall and failed to qualify for the semifinals.

Several days ago, Gotomelsky broke the Israeli record in the 100m butterfly heat, but even that did not suffice to secure the Israeli swimmer a place in the semifinals. She finished in the 36th place overall in the preliminaries.

Another Israeli swimmer who dove into the Olympic waters Wednesday was 22-year-old Itay Chama. He swam the 200m backstroke heat in 2:00.93 minutes, a personal record for Chama. It will be a pleasant surprise if he qualifies for the semifinals, but he is not expected to advance much further.

Men's sailing duo out of medal's reach, but women pair still has hope

Despite being considered the most likely Israelis to take home sailing gold at the beginning of the Olympics, sailing duo Udi Gal and Gidi Kliger continue to disappoint in the 470 event on Wednesday.

The pair was disqualified during the fifth round of the heat on Wednesday morning. They finished 11th in the sixth stage and are now ranked 16 position overall, a long way out of medal contention.

In a letter to Israeli media, Gal called the performance he and his partner gave "uncharacteristic" of their abilities.

"We started the two races really well?but then uncharacteristic things begin to happen in general," he wrote.

"Somehow we depart from the rhythm and fall behind the three to four boats that we had got in from of. It looks like because of lack of confidence over the fact that we fell behind boats and we aren't in our usual rhythm, we lose another two to three upon reaching that we are so strong."

Meanwhile Vered Buskila and Nika Kornitzky are within touching distance of a medal in the women's 470 event. They currently sit fourth in the overall rankings after finishing eighth in the fifth round and 19th in the sixth round. They are two points behind the third-placed Spanish team.

Buskila and Kornitzky have benefited from a rule which removes each team's weakest performance from their final score.

Nofar Edelman finished Wednesday's round of sailing in third place and rose to 13th in the overall rankings in the Laser Radial classification. Thursday's fourth race has been rescheduled.

Israeli fencers lose spot in competition

Fencer Tomer Or was knocked out of competition Wednesday after losing to Canada's Joshua McGuire in the individual foil round of 32. Or led 10-6 going into the last third of play, but weakened to allow McGuire to go equal on points at the end of the contest. Or then lost in extra time.

Noam Mills lost her bout in the individual epee round of 32, going down 15-8 to French rival Laura Flessel Colovic.

All three Israeli fencers are now out of the competition, after Dalilah Hatuel lost on Monday.

	Israeli swimmer Gal Nevo (Reuters)