Athletics EAA Under 23 European Championships 2023

[Grassmarket 3,403]

Running about an hour late - great women’s 400m final 

[Grassmarket 3,403]

 Seedo is a great sprinter but would make a poor poker player.  

Edited July 14, 2023 by Grassmarket

[Werloc 3,164]

Okay, so Mykolas is not broken after all

 

CR on the very first throw and probably gold for Lithuania 

[Werloc 3,164]

Can we also appreciate the fact how well Finland is actually doing in these championships?

 

7 medals already, one of the best championships for a host nation in a while now, I think  

[Bearas 521]

Alekna whipping Cech's CR and winning the gold  + qualifying for Paris 2024

Edited July 15, 2023 by Bearas

[Makedonas 2,155]

On 7/13/2023 at 11:30 AM, Grassmarket said:

People underestimate just how much work the NCAA is.  Pretty common to see people putting up big numbers in May but fading by the middle of the Euro season.

Like our discus thrower Dimitrios Pavlidis. He threw 64.90 in April and here he could only reach 53.05 and missed the final 

[Jinzha 702]

I didn't catch the relays, but based on the commentary it sounds like the Dutch relay failed a baton pass.

 

However, still a great result for the Dutch. This 1500m win for Nillessen is a major upset and surprise! 

[Grassmarket 3,403]

1 hour ago, Makedonas said:

Like our discus thrower Dimitrios Pavlidis. He threw 64.90 in April and here he could only reach 53.05 and missed the final 

I guess at that age athletes do not have the experience to peak twice in a season & of course their NCAA coach is not going to act in anybody else’s interest.

[Makedonas 2,155]

We sent a pretty big team of 40 athletes to Espoo.

 

Our only medal so far was a bronze in the women's 800m from 19 yo Despollari, which is extremely impressive considering she is a professional footballer who runs 400m and 800m as a hobby, and before this year her PB was 2:12.32 and already improved by more than 10 seconds this year. I really hope she focuses more on track because she seems very promising and Greeks are traditionally very poor at middle distances. Our other hope was Deligianni who won bronze in 800 at the World U20s in 2021, but she is injured this year. It's pretty exciting to see these talents emerge in events where we never do well!

 

Emmanouilidou was a big chance for us to win a medal, unfortunately she was only 5th in the 100, but I think in the 200 she will have a better chance as that is really her best event.

 

A nice surprise was our men's 4x100 relay team, who finished 4th with a U23NR. Our women's 4x400 team also had a U23NR, despite not making the final. I don't think they are particularly talented, but we rarely have relay teams competing at this age level, so it probably wasn't too hard to make a NR  (also all 4 of the girls can be back in 2025 so I think that NR can be broken again)

 

In the women's 10000m (another event where we traditionally are trash), we had promising results with Kassou finishing 4th and Lavasa 6th. Kassou is young enough that she will be back in 2025, so hopefully she can win a medal then.

 

Was hoping for a medal in the men's hammer, but our best result was Polychroniou in 5th place. Ntousakis was 12th and Korakidis was 14th. Polychroniou and Korakidis will get another chance at this level in 2025.

 

Dragomirova finishing 18th in the heptathlon was disappointing, but I think she will do much better in 2025 and contend for a medal if she stays healthy.

 

Karydi not even making the triple jump final after winning silver in 2021 was a joke. It's insane how much she and Nacheva have regressed when a few years ago they seemed to be the most promising European triple jumpers by far.

 

Rapti also continues to underperform in major events, nowhere near her SBs in both the long and triple jumps, but she is still young and will have another chance in 2025.

 

Another disappointment was Stamatonikolos in the men's long jump. He had 7.86 just last week, and this week jumped 7.03 in qualifying and failed to make the final. He is another athlete who is young enough to have another chance in 2023.

 

Fiaska 8th in the women's 20km walk...after she was 7th in 2021 we thought she would win a medal in 2023, but this year was very difficult for her with medical problems so it's not surprising at all that she couldn't take a medal.

 

I already mentioned how disappointing Pavlidis was in the men's discus, and Bouzakis was not much better although he did at least make the final. Both will get the chance again in 2025, so hopefully they will learn from this experience and do better next time.

 

Kosmidou not making the women's hammer final was kind of embarrassing...

 

No words for Filippidou missing the women's discus final after winning silver at the World U20s last year. She has been awful throughout 2023 and I wonder if leaving her American college to come back to Greece was a mistake seeing how bad her results are these days. Hopefully she can do better in 2025.

 

Retsa has barely improved the last few years so it's disappointing that she was 10th in the women's pole vault but also not surprising. She is young enough to come back in 2025, but I have a feeling the younger Greek pole vaulters may surpass her and she won't even make the team.

 

Finally, Roumtsios making the semifinals in the men's 110 hurdles was a nice surprise, and he did it with a big PB. Hopefully he can keep improving and do better in 2025.

 

We won 4 medals in 2021 so it's disappointing that we only have 1 so far, however I think Tzengko and Emmanouilidou have really good chances to add to our medal tally tomorrow, and also Dosi in the women's high jump should have a decent chance!

 

Also this is a very young team and the likes of Emmanouilidou, Despollari, Filippidou, Kassou, Polychroniou, Korakidis, Pavlidis, Bouzakis, Roumtsios, Stamatonikolos, Rapti, Dragomirova, Retsa etc. will all get another opportunity in 2025!

[Bearas 521]

 Kingley starts triple jump final with whooping jump of 1.04 m according to the buggy results system 

Edited July 15, 2023 by Bearas