Makedonas

Tentoglou won the men's long jump with 8.22. He only had two valid jumps today. Another U20NR came in the women's shot put from Maria Rafailidou. She had 16.53 earlier this week and now got 16.59. She's second in the world for U20 this year So of course Karalis was the big star of our nationals this year, more than Tentoglou, but we also had a lot of teenagers show good signs for the future (Antonatou, Alivizatos, Mitropoulou, Iakovaki, Rafailidou etc). Antonatou and Alivizatos are both from Kefalonia island. Antonatou's brother is a shot putter who is 19 yo and had a new PB yesterday of 17.92 in the NCAA. I don't remember us ever having any strong athletes from Kefalonia in any sport aside from the late Anna Pollatou who won an Olympic bronze in rhythmic gymnastics. What are they feeding these kids on this island (it only has about 35.000 residents)?! Very impressive.

He missed all 3 attempts at 2.27 to finish in second place. Merlos cleared 2.27 on his first attempt to equal his PB from a few weeks ago and will go for 2.29 now. Another 2008-born athlete, Evelyn Mitropoulou, got 6.45 in the women's long jump The U20WL is 6.46, so she was very close. She also smashed her own indoor U20NR of 6.25 today

17 yo Charalampos Alivizatos in the men's high jump with 2.25 at National Championships His previous PB was 2.19, he equaled that today, then cleared 2.21 on his first attempt, 2.23 on his third, and 2.25 on his first! He is trying now for 2.27 and missed his first attempt. He is currently in second place as Merlos also cleared 2.25 but with less attempts. He is improving rapidly. His PB after 2023 was 1.90, then 2.07 after 2024 and 2.15 after 2025

It is so surprising because we have won many World Championships medals and an Olympic medal but no European medals until now!

I think that is great for Sinner, the money will really help fund his career

Interesting to see so many countries withdrew this year because of Israel's participation. Very different from 1975, after the Turkish invasion of Cyprus of July 1974, Turkey was actually INVITED to participate in Eurovision for the first time which led to Greece withdrawing. I'm not sure if this is a case of double standards or people changing their views

Tereza Mihalikova is almost top 20 in doubles. She could play with Sramkova perhaps.

Some notable retirements: Elisavet Pesiridou (athletics - 100m hurdles) - She announced her retirement on her 34th birthday. She competed in Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020. She narrowly missed Paris 2024 despite being in good form, the rest of he field seemed to get stronger and her ranking was a bit lower even though she was quite consistent. She struggled with injuries in 2025. Fani Tzeli (taekwondo) - She was 7th in Tokyo 2020 but didn't qualify for Paris 2024. Still, she is only 24 yo and seemed to be rising up again after winning bronze at the European Championships so it is a bit surprising. Aikaterini Divari (sailing) - She competed in Tokyo 2020 but didn't qualify for Paris 2024. Only 25 yo. AJ Ginnis (alpine skiing) - Despite winning a silver at the World Championships he never got to compete at the Winter Olympics as he was always unfortunately injured. A shame as he is by far our best winter athlete ever. Only 31 yo, and I have a feeling he might come back in 2030 based on his last interview...

By the way, the girl who hugs him in the video is 16 yo Eleni Iakovaki, daughter of Periklis Iakovakis (2006 European champion in 400 hurdles and 2003 World bronze medalist). She won the women's 400 event today with a massive PB of 53.95 (U20NR and U18NR) and seems to be rapidly improving. Her previous PB was 55.09 from last year (outdoors). We also had 16 yo Apostolia Antonatou finish second today in the women's 60m with 7.33, which is also a new U20NR and U18NR. A few weeks ago she got 7.38 to equal Katerina Thanou's U20NR but now she beat her and she's only 16.

He tried for 6.31 but had two fouls and didn't go for a third attempt.

I don't know where the correct place to post this news is, but the Alexandri sisters announced yesterday they will leave and start competing for again Our aquatics federation and Olympic committee were in talks with them for a while apparently, and they say they want to end their careers where they started and represent Greece in Los Angeles. For those that don't know, they left Greece in 2012 for Austria at the age of 15 because they were cut from our national teams. It was their only way to continue in the sport despite not having any prior connections to Austria. They competed in Rio, Tokyo, and Paris where they placed 4th in the duet (our Greek duet finished 6th). They won many World and European medals for Austria and improved year after year and unexpectedly ended up surpassing all of the Greek girls that were previously seen as more promising by our federation and originally replaced them in our national teams. The girls thanked Austria for the support and opportunities and Austria also seems very supportive of their decision to go back to Greece.

If you click the link and scroll down there is a video: https://www.gazzetta.gr/stibos/2519934/apisteyto-o-karalis-pano-apo-ta-617m

Karalis just cleared 6.07 and then 6.17 at our Indoor National Championships!

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.