An Israeli woman track star set a new Israeli record in a 400 meter Olympic trial heat here yesterday even though she came in last. Twenty-six-year-old Channa Shezfifi, who is Asia champion, did the run in 56.3 seconds, an improvement of six-tenths of a second over the previous Israeli women’s record for the distance. But it was only a practice run for her “to get the feel of the track” before the 800-meter race in which she will participate on Thursday. She said she had planned to just lap the track at an easy pace until the starting gun fired. She told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency correspondent that she still had plenty of strength in reserve and that her effort would not affect her performance in the 800-meter event for which she is training. The heat was won by a Dutch girl in 53.1 seconds. An Israeli marksman placed high in the trials for the pistol competition next week and is assured of a good position for the event. Position is important because of the shortage of wind-protected positions for the competing marksmen. Other members of the Israeli pistol team will go through their trials later this week. The Israeli swimming team will begin its trials on Friday and is training hard in the Olympic pool. Avraham Klein, an Israeli soccer referee, drew cheers from a crowd of 40,000 spectators at his first Olympic appearance refereeing a game in which Spain beat Brazil 1-0. Mr. Klein’s performance made him a favorite to referee the soccer finals, just as a fellow countryman of his did in the Tokyo Olympics four years ago. Mr. Klein baffled the Brazilian and Spanish team captains by using an Israeli 50 agorot coin for the toss-up.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
