Makedonas

DAMASIOTI 57.74, SILVER MEDAL AND QUALIFIED FOR PARIS 2024!

Sloukas now also out due to "injury" Like Papapetrou, he was fine last week in the Greek finals but suddenly is injured and can't compete with the national team. I'm sure 1 or 2 more players will withdraw before the qualifying tournament and we won't make it to the Olympics once again

In the semifinal of the men's 200 freestyle we saw another NR from Markos However the focus is on the women's 100 butterfly where we have two girls who made the final, Anna Ntountounaki who is always there and won gold in the past, and our newcomer Georgia Damasioti. Damasioti came to Belgrade with a PR of 58.76 and in the heats got 58.54, then 58.00 in the semifinals , so she is very very close to the magic number 57.92 for OQT. I really hope she can get it in the final (she will be in a middle lane) because OST means nothing for her since we have Ntountounaki already with OQT (ironically this is the only women's race where Greece has OQT already).

So, so happy for Drakou! She is 32 yo, so many times at the European Championships she finished 4th or 5th, she said all year this was her goal to win a medal as it was the last thing missing from her career in her opinion. Finally she did it! She will probably retire after Paris based on what she's said this year, and I think the timing will be good. I hope she enjoys her 4th and final Olympics where she will only be competing in a relay unless she gets an invitation for an individual event. She's been great for Greek women's swimming the last 12 years or so! Also she said after the race that all night she was dreaming about winning gold, but that she made many mistakes in the race and she is thankful to God that she still won a medal despite the mistakes, and that it was a reward for her for all the times she was close in her career but didn't win a medal And nice to see us win another relay medal, they were close to NR too!

On Wednesday we had the Filothei Women Gala in Athens where they do just 5 events (100m, 100 hurdles, long jump, high jump, pole vault). Emmanouilidou won the 100m with 11.29 and I think she's pretty much guaranteed to go to Paris at this point, whether in 100m, 200m, or both. Pesiridou finished 2nd with 12.99 (+2.2) in the 100 hurdles, despite the wind assistance it was the first time since 2016 that she ran under 13 seconds. She really needed something like this to keep her Paris hopes alive so at least there's still a chance she can go. She DNF in Tokyo and actually didn't even make it to the first hurdle, so I really hope she'll get another Olympic chance as she was young and inexperienced still in Rio and will probably be too old in Los Angeles. Long jump was uneventful from a Greek perspective as was the pole vault although Adamopoulou gained some important ranking points to boost her Olympic chances. The big highlight for us was the high jump where Gusin jumped 1.94, which is her outdoor PB and equals her indoor PB which was from 2019! She seems certain now at 30 yo to qualify for the Olympics, after injuries ruined her chances for Rio and Tokyo. I really hope she doesn't get injured in the next 6 weeks so she can finally make her Olympic debut!

Yes, finally he broke Filippidis' record! He is now 5th in the world this year with this result. 3rd if you only count the outdoor season

It's a shame, this is such a rare opportunity for Albania to be in a major tournament and this is what their fans and even their players (or at least one of them) are doing?! Not to get off topic but when was the Greek island of Corfu (which they include as Albanian lands on these maps, even Dua Lipa posted it) ever inhabited by Albanians prior to Albanian migrants moving all over Greece in the 1990s after the fall of communism? This could be such a great moment for them as a country to be in a big tournament and they are really ruining it with all of this nationalism.

I thought we would add to our gold medal tally today to be honest, but 3 medals is still really good. Also we had big NRs in the two Olympic events where we won silver Siskos broke Christou's NR of 1:56.34 from last month in Thessaloniki (Siskos' previous PR was 1:56.64 from Doha 2024). He's still just 18 yo, I really hope he can do something big in Paris because I worry that he won't be as good in 2028. He is going to study in USA after Paris and often our Olympic athletes who go there end up seeing their progress stall or even decline so it's not always the best decision for everyone and we've seen many examples of it in swimming, athletics, rowing, and tennis. Markos broke his own NR of 7:49.97 from Doha 2024.

I'm pleasantly surprised to see Greece in the top 2/3 of all of these lists, but it is strange that Cyprus is so low when they basically eat standard Greek food plus a few of their own dishes that we don't have.

I think a lot of people here clearly are in denial about Greece becoming the new power of European swimming, so they make ridiculous comments to diminish the prestige of these European Championships

Also this one seems like AI before it was a thing

@Olympian1010 I prefer this one:

2024 European Championship Shotgun: SILVER: Emmanouela Katzouraki and Efthimios Mitas (Skeet Mixed Team) BRONZE: Panagiotis Gerochristos (Skeet Men Junior)

Swimming +1 Apostolos Papastamos (men's 400m individual medley)

Really happy for Papastamos! His previous PR was from 2019 as an 18 yo when he won gold at the World Junior Championships with 4:11.93, which was also our men's NR and a world junior record at the time. He struggled a lot with injuries after that and today out of nowhere after 5 years a new PR/NR of 4:10.83! Qualified for Paris too! After Tokyo I thought he could be a medal chance for us in Paris but things didn't go as planned and 10 hours ago it looked like he wouldn't even qualify for Paris, now I think maybe he can at least make the final but let's see, hopefully he hasn't peaked too soon. Also Giourtzidis 4th in this event with a big PR as well. Good for Greek swimming. And our men's 4 x 200 free relay winning bronze with the second fastest time in Greek history, NR is 7:09.10 from the same group of guys in Doha this year.

We are first in the medal table after Day 1! Stop the count!

I can confidently say it won't be us, that's for sure

Let's go Serbia

Papapetrou out. Here we go again...

Big result at the U18 Greek National Championships in Patras Maria Rafailidou with a U18WL in the 3kg shot put! She was 2nd in the world with 17.80 before this, with the U18WL being 18.43. Today she broke it three times, with 18.50, 18.65, and 18.70. Anastasia Andreadi was 2nd with a disappointing 16.97, but for the year she is third in the world with 17.76. Both Rafailidou and Andreadi have been breaking national U18 records this year. Although Rafailidou is now doing better, Andreadi is younger and will have another chance at the records in 2025. Pretty cool for us to have two of the top 3 U18 women's shot putters this year, especially since that's not an event we normally excel in. We haven't qualified any female shot putter to the Olympics since 2008 for example...

Psarra failing to qualify after 6 consecutive Olympics, what a way for her to spend her 50th birthday So unless there is a big surprise tomorrow in the men's, this will be the first time since 1996 with no Greek archers at the Olympics

Yeah, they would need a lot of withdrawals to get in, countries like for example would get in over a second GBR team due to the singles priority.

Will Swiatek play women's doubles with Magda Linette?