Makedonas

So all six Greek crews are still alive after today. I think it's safe to say our LM2X and M2- will be eliminated in the semifinals. Hoping our LW2X can sneak into Final A. They still have a chance to make it to the Olympics next month but it will be tough. The reallocated quota there could make a huge difference though. I think Ntouskos (M1X) and Kyridou (W1X) will both make the finals, but I'm a bit worried about Kyridou especially after everything she went through this week (fell out of the boat in Olympic qualifying, then had to compete in repechage here). Our W2- is already in the final and I'm hoping they can win another medal like they did last year. Both girls just only 20 years old, and they already each have 10 medals in big competitions (though only one at the senior level). Will be hard to see Romania not win gold, and the other big contenders seem to be Great Britain and Spain.

Absolutely dominating performance from Ntouskos to win his heat. Thought it would be tough with Zeidler in his heat, but Ntouskos won by over 14 seconds! He had two races yesterday in the Olympic qualification regatta, so it was important for him to win this heat and avoid the repechage. I like his chances for a medal now. It’s a shame he said he might retire after Tokyo, he is only 24 and would be 27 in Paris. I think it would be a big loss for Greek rowing. Hopefully he decides to continue. Tough luck for our women’s lightweight double. They were in a tough heat, with the three other boats all being already qualified for Tokyo (and yet our girls were still very close!). The other heats each only had one Tokyo-bound boat. I think they’ll still make the semifinals via the repechage. Will be tough to make Final A, but I think they’ll improve on their 9th place finish from last year. Not much to say about our men's pair and men's lightweight double. They are young crews though (all six of our boats here are young).

I hope Greece can have a good championships. Would like to repeat the performance from last year where we won two medals. Bourmpou/Kyridou already passed to Final A, did better than Spain in the heat so I think they're in a good position to win another medal. Romania and Great Britain will be tough though. Kyridou 4th in her heat, but she was in the toughest semi. Might be fatigued from the Olympic qualification regatta. I have high hopes for Ntouskos to do better than last year where he finished 5th, but I also hope he isn't tired from the Olympic qualification regatta.

There are only 9

2021 European Championships begin tomorrow

It has been confirmed, she fell into the water four minutes before the start of the race but still wanted to compete despite being soaking wet and cold.

Thank you for that information. It will still be tough but good for our girls. Especially if Nikolaidou is able to get healthy in time and replace Fitsiou.

A relief that Ntouskos qualified, and I am confident Kyridou will qualify next month as well. Sad for our LW2X though, they really needed this. Will be hard to see them qualify now. Does anyone know what is happening with the reallocated quota from the Americas event in LW2X?

I thought Ukraine secured two, W1X and LM2X?

Update: Apparently Anneta Kyridou fell into the water before the race and was wet and cold during the race because of it. This sounds crazy so I am not sure how accurate this information is...

I have no idea how Anneta Kyridou finished sixth in W1X! I wonder if she knew she was the fourth priority for the Greek federation to get the quota, and she is saving her energy for the European Championships which begin tomorrow? Still very risky if that's the case. Our LW2X finished second and our LM2X were fifth, meaning LW2X will go to Tokyo unless Stefanos Ntouskos wins first place M1X. He is probably expected to win first place but I don't know. He won his heat and semifinal both, unless he fails on purpose so our LW2X can go to Tokyo and he would still probably qualify in Lucerne.

Roland Garros postponed by one week

Postponed until Thursday now!

She is currently bringing a lawsuit against the federation so they probably hate her anyways I think the justification they had was that the lightweight double sculls have priority over single sculls because they have two athletes instead of one, and men's has priority over women's because we already qualified a women's crew for Tokyo. Probably they don't want to look bad because we sent 10 rowers to London and 10 to Rio, right now we only have 2 for Tokyo. Anneta Kyridou deserves it though. In 2019 she won gold in the women's double at the World U23, then her partner got injured last minute so she competed with an inexperienced alternate girl at the World Championships and didn't do well. Then she won gold in the single sculls at the European U23, before deciding to switch to the lightweight category even though the federation didn't support this decision and she had to pay for her own healthy meals at training camp, which her single mother who had cancer was paying for. Then she lost 10 kg but ended up fainting at a training camp and was neglected by team staff (part of why she is suing them), so she switched back to regular sculls instead of lightweight in the middle of summer 2020, defended her gold at the European U23 and then took bronze at the European Championships as a 21 year old. It would be a crime if she doesn't go to Tokyo. She deserves it so much after all she has been through. I think she'll make it though the final regatta if needed, but yeah it is a risk. A risk for Ntouskos too. I think the quota will go to Anastasiadou/Fitsiou (LW2X), which would be nice for them but I don't think they have a chance to win a medal, whereas W1X and M1X we have young rowers that have decent chances to make Final A (and you never know, maybe win a surprise medal). Anastasiadou was supposed to row with Nikolaidou which would've been a good team. Anastasiadou won gold at last year's European U23 in LW1X as an 18 yo, and Nikolaidou was 4th in Rio in W2X, also is the former world champion in LW1X and won other world silver medals in W2X and LW1X. Unfortunately she is injured which means Fitsiou gets the chance that she otherwise wouldn't have.

Great to see all of the Greek crews advancing, with M1X, W1X and LW2X all finishing in first place in their heats. Unfortunately we can only send one boat from here as everyone knows. The rumor is that the federation decided LM2X has priority, then LW2X, then M1X, then W1X. Tough luck for 2020 European Championships bronze medalist Anneta Kyridou, but she's probably the most likely to qualify from the Final Qualification Regatta anyways.

If Ieva didn't get suspended, would Donata have competed in the single sculls instead?

Andreescu vs Sakkari was a great match. Even though Maria lost, I am very proud of her. It seems the women's matches this tournament are more entertaining than the mens.

Some Greek football players who have represented our national team in the last decade or so: Panagiotis Kone - Born in Albania to Albanian parents Lazaros Rota - Born in Greece to Albanian parents Fiorin Durmishaj - Born in Albania. Moved to Greece at a young age Marios Vrousai - Born in Greece to Albanian parents Jose Holebas - Born in Germany to a Greek father and a Uruguayan mother Zeca - Born in raised in Portugal. Received Greek citizenship after playing for Panathinaikos for 5+ years and learning to speak fluent Greek Dimitris Limnios - Born in Greece to a Greek father and a Brazilian mother Leonardo Koutris - Born in Brazil to a Greek father and a Brazilian mother. Moved to Greece at a young age Odysseas Vlachodimos - Born in Germany to Greek parents Thanos Petsos - Born in Germany to Greek parents Vasilis Barkas - Born in the Netherlands to a Greek father and Dutch mother. Moved to Greece at a young age Pantelis Chatzidiakos - Born in Greece to a Greek father and Dutch mother Panagiotis Retsos - Born in South Africa to Greek parents. Moved to Greece at a young age Loukas Vyntra - Born in the Czech Republic (then Czechoslovakia) to a Czech father and Greek mother. Moved to Greece at a young age Sotiris Ninis - Born in Albania to Greek parents. Moved to Greece at a young age Avraam Papadopoulos - Born in Australia to Greek parents. Moved to Greece at a young age ALSO: Giorgos Giakoumakis - Born in Greece to Roma parents. I believe he is only the second Greek Roma to play for our national team, at least that I can remember. The guys in bold are players who have been called up to play for the national team within the last 12 months.

"South Macedonia" (or just Macedonia as we Greeks call it) has some very good players such as Tsimikas of Liverpool, Giannoulis of Norwich City, Mitroglou who used to be at Benfica and Marseille and is now at Aris, Siovas, Pelkas, Fetfatzidis, Papadopoulos, Pavlidis and of course the Greek wonderkid Christos Tzolis who is now attracting interest from big European clubs... 10 of the 23 players on Greece's Euro 2004 team were from our region

Osaka had a 23 match wins streak until today! Bravo Maria!

Don't get me started...

I think Greece is a safe bet to qualify a boat here. Anneta Kyridou won bronze last year at the European Championships. She also won gold at the European U23 Championships in 2020 (and also in 2019). Stefanos Ntouskos and Evangelia Anastasiadou/Zoi Fitsiou also have really good chances here. It's too bad that only one boat will be able to qualify from Varese in the end, but hopefully the other two can make it in Lucerne.

Both Greeks made it to the quarterfinals!

Huge PB for Papadopoulou (almost four minutes!), and great first 20km for the young Filtisakou (her name is misspelled on the World Athletics site lol)

Very disappointing because she was like fourth or so of the top ranked Europeans who didn't qualify yet. Thank you both for the information though.