2018 Nachum BuchScholarships Awarded to Matt Levy and Benno Negri

MACCABI AUSTRALIA 2018 NACHUM BUCH SCHOLARSHIP ANNOUNCEMENTS

Maccabi Australia (MAI) is proud to announce the winners of the 2018 Nachum Buch Scholarships.

In its inaugural year, the Maccabi Australia Nachum Buch Scholarship recognises swimmers with the aim of assisting them on the path to achieving at the elite level.

There are 2 worthy winners of the 2018 Nachum Buch Swimming Scholarship – Matt Levy and Benno Negri.

MATT LEVY

Matt has been representing Australia as a swimmer since 2003, swimming career highlights include:

• Member of the Dolphins Team competing in the 2017 IPC World Swimming Championships, Mexico
• Won a bronze medal in the 200m Freestyle at the 2016 Paralympic Games
• Represented Australia at the 2013 and 2015 IPC World Championships
• Won gold as a member of the 4X100m Freestyle relay team at the 2010 IPC World Championships and again at the London 2012 Paralympic Games.
• Winning a gold medal and breaking a world record for the 200 freestyle in the S7 category at the 2017 Maccabiah Games
• Winning a Gold Medal for the 50 S7 Freestyle at the recent 2018 Commonwealth Games

He balances his swimming career whilst working at Westpac as a project manager.

Matt claims that representing Australia and Maccabi at the 2017 Maccabiah Games was one of the greatest honors in my 17-year sporting career and he is grateful for the experience it brought.

As one of the inaugural winners of the Nachum Buch Swimming Scholarship, Matt will use the funds to support his swimming career during 2018.

BENNO NEGRI

Benno began competing at 9 years old as a junior competitor for Bialik College.  As a junior swimmer, he has won several National Age Awards including 2014 National Champion for the 200 Backstroke.  A highlight of his swimming career has been donning “the green and gold” to represent on the Australian Junior Team and winning a silver medal at the 2014 Junior Pan Pacific Games.

Benno has won many Swimming Victoria Championships at both the Age and Open level.  Recently he competed in the 2017 Mare Nostrum Swimming Series in Europe and at the Swimming Australia Selection Trials for the 2018 Commonwealth Games.  He is about to travel to Singapore representing Swimming Victoria at the Singapore Swimming Championships and will be competing at another 2 Australian selection trials in 2018 – the Pan Pacific Swimming Trials (for selection to the Pan Pacific Championships in Tokyo August 2018) and the Swimming Australia National Short Course Championships (for selection to the FINA Short Course World Championships in Hangzhou December 2018)

Currently studying part-time (Engineering/Science at Monash University) and training fulltime, he is focused on his long-term ambition to Medal at a Swimming Australia Open event and to be a member of the Australian Dolphins team.

A worthy recipient of the inaugural Nachum Buch Swimming Scholarship, Benno will be using the funds to assist with travel and allied health expenses.

The Nachum Buch Maccabi Australia Scholarship Fund has been established with the foresight and generosity of Nachum and his family to help those athletes with a dream in aquatic sports.  It provides a yearly grant of up to $2000 to athletes to assist them on the path to achieving at an elite level.

Each year the grant will be made to the individual or individuals who best fit the scholarship selection criteria and is deemed the most deserving by the selection panel. Funding can be used to pay for such legitimate items as travel to tournaments, coaching expenses, registration or nomination fees and the like.

Nachum wishes the inaugural recipients of the scholarship, Matt and Benno “every success at 2018 swimming competitions and in their future swimming careers”.