Makedonas

Us Greeks eat watermelon in the summer, often you can get watermelon as a free dessert in taverns, we even have an island where they make watermelon pies!

Such a shame we got Vasilantonaki to rejoin the national team again after so many years only for her to miss the World Championships due to injury I'm glad though that the 17 yo Tikmanidou gets the chance to be on the team, her and Anthouli are the future EDIT-She's actually still 16!

Wow we won a silver medal in the Men's C1-1000m

Paralia is very popular but not really because of beauty, but more for convenience reasons. It is close to Thessaloniki and of course Katerini so a lot of Greeks go there, but mainly it is populated in the summer months with people from Balkan countries as it is an easy drive and they go for cheap holidays. In my opinion Paralia is kind of a "tourist trap." Some other towns of the Olympic Riviera are nicer in my opinion, like Platamonas and Neoi Poroi.

Definitely not enough Greek beaches on the list, and even the two that were chosen are very questionable and not even top 50 in Greece in my opinion, let alone in the world! I've never been to Plakias Beach but it's on Crete and there are better beaches on Crete such as Balos, Elafonisi, Falasarna, Preveli, Kedrodasos, Voulisma, Stavros, Marathi, Karavostasi/Bali, Vai, Matala, etc. The fact that I've been to Crete but never been to Plakias says it all I've been to Tsambika Beach (on Rhodes) and it is nice but in my opinion not even the best beach of Rhodes. I am surprised that some of our world-famous beaches were not chosen! Even if some may be "overrated" like Simos on Elafonissos, Navagio-Zakynthos, Porto Katsiki-Lefkada, Myrtos-Kefalonia, some Antipaxos and Halkidiki beaches, Sarakiniko-Milos... Also interesting that Ksamil in Albania is number 3, there was/is a large indigenous Greek population in that area, and it was briefly part of Greece like 100 years ago, but if it was still part of Greece I don't think it would be our number one beach.

Sad that we didn't even send a team for the women's foil when we sent multiple individuals and some did quite well for our standards. Chaldaiou is now top 50, Kontochristopoulou is back in the top 100, and the young Garyfallou was top 100 last year.

She got a new PB in the 800! 2:28.79! Her previous PB was 2:30.50 from last year and her SB was 2:30.76 from last week. She still has a long way to go, but hopefully she can continue to shave off time from her 800m PB over the next few years. She ends with 6163 points, another new U23NR for her (previous one was 6054 from last week). A big, big improvement and now moves up to 2nd all-time on the Greek women's list. NR is 6235 so hopefully she can get it next season

Stamatia Scarvelis so close to a NR in the women's hammer throw. She's wanted it for years (record is 72.10 from Stella Papadopoulou in 2008). Her PB was 71.43 from 2022, now she just went 71.95 on her fourth throw for a new PB! I hope she can get the NR on one of her last two throws. She is also in first place currently. Big shame on our federation that there is a stream for U18 decathlon/heptathlon track events but not for women's hammer throw

No finals for us today, but some good showings. Pavlopoulou reclaimed the NR in the women's 200 IM from Vasilaki. Bilas with two new NRs in the men's 50 butterfly and finished 11th overall. Ntountounaki very close to her own NR in the women's 100 butterfly, 3rd best time of her long career and 10th overall.

What's wrong with Ilieva?

Not that I'm complaining, as it is one less "rivalry" for my country, but it is crazy that are so poor in sport (with very few exceptions) compared to some other ex-Yugo countries. Their population isn't that small compared to some of the others either.

I think it is exaggerated to be honest, the photo above which our federation posted doesn't show the full stadium. Everyone was crowded around the long jump pit to watch Tentoglou. On the other side the seats were mostly empty. I imagine it may be similar today for Karalis. Still, even if it was only 5.000 or 8.000 that is impressive for a Balkan championship indeed! I hope we host more often. This was our first time since 2010 and first ever in Volos. Maybe in the future we can host in other cities with decent sized stadiums, particularly in the central/north so they are more "Balkan" and closer to the other nations, like Thessaloniki, Ioannina, Kavala, Larissa, Serres, Trikala etc. Those cities have some good stadiums for athletics and can get a chance to watch our stars compete for the national team.

Well yes, we got gold in W2X and LW2X, and silver in W1X 4th in M1X and 6th in M2-. They will have many more chances in the future and the M2- have the World U19 Championships in a few weeks to look forward to

Dragomirova 6.42 long jump (her PB is 6.44 from 2019) and 47.61 javelin. She has 5455 points after six events. Unfortunately the 800 is her weakest event by far but she should still get enough points for a new U23NR. Last week, she had 5371 points at this stage and then got only 683 from the 800m for a U23NR of 6054. Also our federation is saying 10.000 people attended yesterday

Georgiadou and Gkountoura both lost in the round of 64