Israel Finishes Seventh in European Artistic Swimming Team Technical Final

The Israeli artistic swimming team secured seventh place in the team technical final at the 2026 European Championships held in Paris, scoring 252.9074 points. The final was conducted as a direct final without preliminaries, and Israel finished ahead of teams from Britain, Bulgaria, and Turkey. Despite being the last to perform after nine strong teams, Israel managed to maintain composure and achieve a solid ranking. This result follows their seventh-place finish in the team free routine final the previous day and a notable fifth place in the mixed duet technical final, marking the team's fifth final appearance at the championships.

The team members for the technical routine included Yogev Dagan (Maccabi Mazkeret Batya), Kati Konin (Hapoel Jerusalem), Alexandra Lerman (Greater Jerusalem), Noga Levi (Hapoel Jerusalem), Lior Makmel (Maccabi Mazkeret Batya), Leah Makmel (Maccabi Mazkeret Batya), Aya Mazor (Maccabi Mazkeret Batya), and Noya Tzarfati (Maccabi Tel Aviv). Israel will conclude its participation in artistic swimming with the acrobatics final scheduled for Wednesday.

Simultaneously, the European Open Water Swimming Championships began in Paris with Israeli swimmers competing in the 10 km Olympic distance race held on the Seine River, the same venue used for the Olympics two years ago. The weather and water conditions were favorable, with 34 men and 32 women participating. Among the women, Ofek Adir (Hapoel Bat Yam) finished 22nd with a time of 2:15:15.5, starting strong in the lead pack before moving to the second group mid-race and improving her position slightly.

Emily Golus (TLV Swim) placed 26th with 2:19:11.2, while Rivka Androvich (TLV Swim) finished 29th but was disqualified for exceeding the maximum allowed time by 11 seconds. This was Androvich's senior debut just a month after the European Junior Championships, gaining valuable experience. On the men's side, Yonatan Achdut (Hapoel Jerusalem) finished 25th with a time of 1:58:55.5, swimming with the lead pack until about 7.5 km before dropping to the second group. Both Adir and Achdut are set to compete in the 5 km race the following day.