Gili Lustig insists Israel's athletes exceeded expectations with an excellent 12-medal haul at the European Games in Baku.
Judoka Sagi Muki and swimmer Ziv Kalontarov struck gold for Israel's 142-athlete delegation at the inaugural event.
Israel's delegation went on to collect four silvers and six bronzes, with 12 other athletes also reaching finals.
“We amassed 12 medals, a lot more than we predicted, with two athletes also booking their place at Rio 2016,” said Lustig, who is the General Secretary of Israel's Olympic committee. “Our greatest success was that we showed we have depth.”
Muki won Israel’s first gold medal before teenage star Kalontarov booked his place at Rio 2016 by finishing first. Earlier in the competition, Sergey Richter also guaranteed his place on the plane to Brazil in the Shooting competition. Israel also picked up a flurry of medals in Gymnastics.
“All our athletes picked up valuable experience in a multi-sport event,” said Lustig. “However, we must remember that this was an event with 50 European nations and this was not the Olympics where there are athletes from 205 nations and the level of competition is much higher.”
Israel are expected to send between 35 to 40 athletes to Rio next year. “We are judged according to results and when you manage to exceed expectations you have every reason to be pleased,” said Lustig.
“However, we are not getting carried away because we know that there is still a lot more of hard work to be done before Rio.”
