Two Israeli age-group records fell inside a few hours of each other on the opening day of the 90th Israel Athletics Championship, as pole vaulter Yarden Mantel and 400m runner Noam Mamu both improved marks they already owned at Givat Ram Stadium in Jerusalem.
Mantel, competing for Maccabi Tel Aviv, cleared 4.16m to break her own Israeli under-20 and under-23 pole vault records by a single centimetre, having taken the mark to 4.15m earlier this season. The clearance extended a run that has made her the dominant figure in Israeli pole vault: she has now won the national title in four straight years, from 2023 through 2026.
Born in Kfar Saba in January 2007, Mantel has climbed the age-group ranks quickly, reaching the World U20 Championships in Lima in 2024 and steadily adding centimetres to her best each season. At 19, she is still eligible for both the under-20 and under-23 record books, and Wednesday's jump ticked both boxes at once.
Mamu's record fell in the men's 400m, where the Hapoel Emek Hefer runner stopped the clock at 46.58 seconds to take another bite out of the Israeli under-23 mark — a record he had already reset just four days earlier, running 46.78 at a meet in Liège, Belgium. Wednesday's run shaved two more tenths off that mark.
The 20-year-old, from Migdal HaEmek, has been one of the standout quarter-milers to come through the Israeli system in recent years: a four-time national 400m champion, a two-time national 800m champion, and a silver medallist over 800m at the 2022 European U18 Championships, which were also held at Givat Ram.
The two records set an early tone for a championship that draws roughly 250 of the country's leading track and field athletes to Jerusalem over two days, with free admission for spectators. The event doubles as a domestic proving ground and a staging post for athletes building toward the international season.
There was other business to settle on the opening day besides the records. Mercy Afrifah of Maccabi Tel Aviv won her first senior national title, taking the women's 100m in 11.72 seconds; her brother, Blessing Afrifah, holds the Israeli senior record over the same distance.
Linoy Levi of Maccabi Ramat Hasharon won the women's 110m hurdles in 13.66, and Arbel Hanzel of Lider Jerusalem took the men's 1500m in 3:48.57, according to Walla Sport and Davar's coverage of the meet.
For Mantel and Mamu, though, the day belonged to the record books. Both are still young enough to keep climbing the age-group lists, and both arrived at Givat Ram already the record holders they were trying to beat — a reminder that in Israeli athletics right now, the fastest-improving competition is often against themselves.
