Makedonas

Well I came across her Instagram page today. She played in Poland this past season but she has the...Indonesian flag in her Instagram bio... So yeah, I really wasn't wrong about this and while we're at it let's talk about Serbia, Turkey, Hungary, and Israel who also have Americans on their team By the way, here it is in case you didn't believe me: https://www.instagram.com/tasha.mack4/

Well I am very happy with our performance against Latvia! The first quarter was a mess but midway through the second quarter we went down 11 and then it was a big turning point for us and we started to play well. Of course Spanou shot 6 3-pointers, but she actually made 2 of them so I can't even complain today We actually played most of the game with two guards instead of three, and as a result we limited the amount of offensive rebounds Latvia got (compared to Montenegro when we played with three guards). I mean, it is not rocket science so I'm glad our coach was able to figure it out. Also the dinosaurs (Sotiriou and Stamati) each played for less than 10 minutes, which I am happy about, after yesterday we had Stamati play 32 minutes, meanwhile she is 38 yo and spent most of her career either not being good enough for the national team or mostly on the bench and barely getting minutes. Now suddenly the coach decided she is a starting player? Lol. Don't get me wrong, I am glad to have her in the team as a bench player but in no world should she be getting so much playing time. And I was proven correct today Christinaki played 37 mins, Tsineke played 29 mins, and Pavlopoulou played 22 mins, and they all played very well today! This is what I was talking about yesterday. They are all very good players and the coach barely used them against Montenegro. He must have an account on this site and saw my post and decided to listen to me I still think Bosgana should play, it's a shame that she didn't get any minutes so far but it is what it is. Fasoula is incredible! She has really proven herself both for her club and country. She would make it onto any national team (except USA), and she is probably our best overall player since Maltsi. I am not sure if we can beat Spain, it will be very tough, but if Montenegro can beat Latvia then it won't even matter. Let's see what will happen on Sunday...

World Aquatics Men's U20 Water Polo Championships 2023: Group B: 10 - 13 12 - 14 9 - 16 Round of 16: 15 - 8 Quarterfinals: 11 - 10 Semifinals: vs.

Well we can pretty much kiss Paris 2024 goodbye after that performance I was unable to watch the game but if we lost to Montenegro (even if it was close), then we really can't expect to do much here... Judging by the statistics, I am not surprised either. Spanou (our PF/C) shot 7 3-pointers and only made 1 of them. She's been doing this for years. She thinks she is Steph Curry or something, meanwhile she misses 90% of the time. I can't believe no national team coach has ever told her stop doing that crap. It's extremely frustrating. Also we let Montenegro collect 16 (!!!) offensive rebounds, when they only let us get 5. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that we played most of the game with three guards under 180cm, then we wonder why we can't get rebounds... As expected, Diela and Karlafti did not play and Alexandri only played 3 minutes. I'm shocked that Bosgana didn't play at all, as she is one of our tallest players and one of the best players we have on our bench, plus she is a decent shooter too! I'm not sure what this coach was thinking, and playing Stamati more than Christinaki and Pavlopoulou combined is also a joke. Especially since Pavlopoulou seemed to have a good game based on the stats. I will say that I'm happy Tsineke finally got a lot of playing time. Also I will say that I would rather lose with the authentic team we had than win like Montenegro did, with an American player leading them who probably can't even locate Montenegro on the map or can name any place in the country except for maybe Podgorica, or speak a word of their language but that's a conversation for another time...

And now she got 22.94 in 200m, which is a new U23 NR (the previous one was a tie between her and Maria Belibasaki, who both had 23.18!) Of course her improvement each year in 200m has also been very impressive: 2019-24.64 2020-24.25 2021-23.77 2022-23.20 2023-22.94

TEAM GREECE Dionysia Alexandri Eleni Bosgana Eleanna Christinaki Ioanna Diela Maria Fasoula Zafeirenia Karlafti Pinelopi Pavlopoulou Aikaterina Sotiriou Artemis Spanou Evdokia Stamati Anna Stamolamprou Elena Tsineke The only differences from 2021 are Christinaki, Karlafti, and Stamati in for Anastasopoulou, Louka, and Nikolopoulou. Definitely an upgrade overall. The problem with this team is that we have a weak bench. We will have 6-7 girls playing the whole game as always, and suffer if one of the two tall girls (Fasoula and Spanou) get in foul trouble. Alexandri, Diela, and Karlafti are not good enough for this level and Sotiriou and Stamati are no longer good enough to play more than 5-10 mins per game at this stage in their careers. Even Bosgana and Tsineke are both super young/inexperienced, but they were there in 2021 and have both improved a lot since then so I expect them to have a bigger role with this team. It's so predictable that our starting lineup will be Stamolamprou/Tsineke/Christinaki/Spanou/Fasoula, and Pavlopoulou will also get big minutes. The rest of the team (minus maybe Bosgana) will probably play no more than 5 mins each. It's too bad Chatzileonti was injured as I think she would've been an important addition to this team off the bench. Not sure why Krimili wasn't called up as we could also use her offensively. Perhaps she is injured too. Nikolopoulou only played in the first qualifying window so I think she might be done with the national team. She's only 32 yo so it's not like she's super old or anything, but there must be some issue with the federation or coach. I can't say I'm upset as I always thought she got way more playing time than she deserved, but I still think she could've been used off the bench (meanwhile she was a starter for ~5 or so years). Spyridopoulou also seems to be done which is a shame. She was injured and missed Eurobasket 2021 where we could've used her shooting skills. Now she is 34 yo and hasn't competed with the national team in over two years so I guess she is also done. Meanwhile we have 39 yo Sotiriou and 38 yo Stamati in the team

And now she won her first ITF professional title at W25 Kursumlijska Banja, Serbia. She came from qualifying and had wins in the main draw over the likes of no. 354 Reyngold, no. 189 Grammatikopoulou, no. 323 Bayerlova, and no. 299 Dinu. She won 7 matches in total and only lost one set. Dimitra will now move up from her current ranking of 670 to around 475 in the WTA rankings.

Also 76.33m in the hammer throw for Konstantinos Zaltos to finish second at the NCAA Championships. He is number 3 on the Greek men's toplist for 2023 so far, which means we can have three male hammer throwers hopefully qualify for Paris 2024

Notable big new 2023 PBs through 10 June 2023: Women: 100m - Polyniki Emmanouilidou (2003) - 11.21 (had 11.44 after 2022) 100m - Dimitra Tsoukala (1999) - 11.48 (had 11.83 after 2022) 400m - Noragia Johnson (2001) - 53.85 (had 54.88 after 2022) 800m- Georgia Despollari (2003) - 2:04.54 (had 2:12.32 after 2022) 100m Hurdles - Sofia Iosifidou (1998) - 13.65 (had 13.97 after 2022) High Jump - Nikoleta Michailidou (2006) - 1.84i (had 1.77 after 2022) High Jump - Santi Papakosta (2002) - 1.89i (had 1.81 after 2022) Pole Vault - Anastasia Bouboulidi (2008) - 4.00 (had 3.70 after 2022) Pole Vault - Ariadni Mirtsiou (2009) - 4.00 (had 3.20 after 2022) Pole Vault - Iliana Triantafyllou (2005) - 4.30i (had 4.15 after 2022) Long Jump - Andriana Gogga (2003) - 6.11 (had 5.93i after 2022) Triple Jump - Anastasia Vokotopoulou (2004) - 13.34 (had 12.23 after 2022) Triple Jump - Melina Zaragka (2007) - 12.72 (had 12.21 after 2022) Heptathlon - Anastasia Dragomirova (2003) - 5636 (had 5331 after 2022) 20km Race Walk - Antigoni Drisbioti (1984) - 1:28:12 (had 1:29:03 after 2022) Men: 100m - Dimitrios Chrysafis (1999) - 10.44 (had 10.52 after 2022) Pole Vault - Pavlos Kriaras (2006) - 5.10i (had 4.90 after 2022) Long Jump - Nikolaos Stamatonikolos (2003) - 7.81 (had 7.62 after 2022) Triple Jump - Ioannis Gkartsios (2006) - 15.53 (had 15.19 after 2022) Discus Throw - Dimitrios Pavlidis (2003) - 64.90 (had 55.51 after 2022) Hammer Throw - Markelo Mema (2001) - 70.46 (had 68.83 after 2022) Hammer Throw - Orestis Ntousakis (2002) - 71.51 (had 70.36 after 2022) Hammer Throw - Nikolaos Polychroniou (2003) - 72.65 (had 67.76 after 2022) Hammer Throw - Konstantinos Zaltos (2000) - 76.33 (had 72.51 after 2022) Javelin Throw - Alexandros Grigoriadis (2005) - 67.44 (had 61.15 after 2022)

Polyniki Emmanouilidou (19 yo) ran 100m in 11.21 today Fastest 100m by a Greek woman since 2005! Her improvement each year has been very impressive (11.94 in 2019, 11.71 in 2020, 11.55 in 2021, 11.44 in 2022, now 11.21 in 2023 and it's only June). I think as long as she stays injury-free we will see her in Paris, and I think we also have a good chance to make it in the 4x100 relay.

Well for Tsitsipas this is his first public relationship like that. He had a girlfriend for a few years before this but we rarely saw her anywhere.

I'm several days late, but Valentini Grammatikopoulou beat Rebecca Sramkova in the final of the W40 tournament in Otocec See what I did here? @hckošice

I guess Sakkari's loss to Muchova in the first round was not bad at all. Just a shame Maria had that draw Also, it's too bad Sabalenka could not beat Muchova. A Swiatek-Sabalenka final with the number one ranking on the line (as well as political drama) would've been a real treat to watch and good for women's tennis.

It appears so. In Greece many people are impressed that he was able to secure such a beautiful girl. I hope they are happy together and wish them the best!

2023 French Open: Men's Singles: Quarterfinals: Carlos Alcaraz ESP d. (5) Stefanos Tsitsipas GRE 6-2 6-1 7-6(5)

2023 French Open: Men's Singles: Round 4: (5) Stefanos Tsitsipas GRE d. (Q) Sebastian Ofner AUT 7-5 6-3 6-0 Quarterfinals: (5) Stefanos Tsitsipas GRE vs. (1) Carlos Alcaraz ESP

2023 French Open: Women's Singles Qualifying: Round 1: (30) Moyuka Uchijima JPN d. Despina Papamichail GRE 6-2 6-2 Round 1: Valentini Grammatikopoulou GRE d. Sinja Kraus AUT 6-4 6-1 Round 2: (11) Nao Hibino JPN d. Valentini Grammatikopoulou GRE 6-1 6-1 Men's Singles: Round 1: (5) Stefanos Tsitsipas GRE d. (PR) Jiri Vesely CZE 7-5 6-3 4-6 7-6(7) Round 2: (5) Stefanos Tsitsipas GRE d. Roberto Carballes Baena ESP 6-3 7-6(4) 6-2 Round 3: (5) Stefanos Tsitsipas GRE d. Diego Schwartzman ARG 6-2 6-2 6-3 Round 4: (5) Stefanos Tsitsipas GRE vs. (Q) Sebastian Ofner AUT Women's Singles: Round 1: Karolina Muchova CZE d. (8) Maria Sakkari GRE 7-6(5) 7-5 Men's Doubles: Round 1: (3) Arevalo/Rojer ESA/NED d. Tsitsipas/Tsitsipas GRE/GRE 6-3 3-6 7-6(6)

2022 European Rowing Championships Silver: Evangelia Anastasiadou (women's lightweight single sculls) Zoi Fitsiou and Dimitra Kontou (women's lightweight double sculls) Stefanos Ntouskos (men's single sculls) Bronze: Petros Gkaidatzis and Antonios Papakonstantinou (men's lightweight double sculls)

I wouldn't say so, this is WTA after all, anything is possible I'm not surprised about this loss. The two unseeded players that everyone wanted to avoid in the early rounds were Muchova and Vondrousova. Of course Sakkari had to face one of them, just like she drew Andreescu in Miami...but it is what it is, she also lost to Zhu at the Australian Open and Tatjana Maria at Wimbledon last year so we can't always complain about the draw. I just wish she played Rabat this year to get another title, she withdrew at the last minute and the draw ended up being a joke and it would've been a good chance to get another title. Also it's the third year in a row she loses to a lower-ranked Czech opponent in Paris (Krejcikova 2021, Muchova 2022 and 2023). Also was upset by Siniakova in 2019. Next year I predict she'll lose to either Vondrousova, Noskova, or Bouzkova

So we ended with 4 medals, just like last year, except this time no gold. Once again Ntouskos beats Zeidler but only gets silver because once again, a Dutch rower surprises everyone to win gold Anastasiadou with another silver, this time in LW1X instead of W1X. Still very good for her to already have two European Championships medals and she's only 21 yo. Our issue is that we have 3 good women's lightweight rowers and only two of them can compete in an Olympic event, so Anastasiadou will probably be in the single scull for Paris. It's an interesting decision, but so far it doesn't seem too unreasonable given how well they've all done. We had 10 rowers in London, then 10 in Rio and only 4 in Tokyo. The way things are trending I think we will be going back to having 10 (or more) rowers in Paris

So our LW2X won silver! Really impressive especially since Kontou is just 17 yo And our LM2X won bronze They are also quite young, 24 yo and 22 yo. Anastasiadou really should win a medal tomorrow and hopefully Ntouskos as well.

Our LW2X won their repechage after finishing 2nd in their heat, and are now in the final. I think they have a good shot at a medal but have a feeling they'll just miss out. Still, a good sign for Olympic qualification. Our men's pair didn't make it through the repechage and will be in Final C. A regatta to forget for them... Fragkou won the repechage in the women's single sculls but just finished last in her semifinal, so Final B it is. Hopefully she can finish around 8th or 9th overall. Our LM2X finished second in their semifinal and will fight for a medal in about an hour And Ntouskos finished second in his semifinal, so hopefully he can win a medal tomorrow. Especially with Damir Martin and Kjetil Borch not making it, there are opportunities for him for sure. So we sent 6 boats to Bled and made 4 finals, definitely not bad, hopefully we can get a few medals as well...

Anastasiadou won her heat easily in LW1X, so I think it would be shocking if she does not win a medal. I don't know if gold is possible though, as Cozmiuc seems almost unstoppable. Ntouskos winning his heat in M1X is also a good sign, and hopefully he can get another medal here. Our LM2X did great, finishing 2nd in their heat. So far they seem to be on the right track to qualify for Paris Our LW2X also did well and finished 2nd in their heat. Unfortunately, our men's pair was absolutely horrible, finishing 6th in their heat and by some margin. I mean, this same crew couldn't even make the A Final of the World U23s last year, so I shouldn't be too surprised... Fragkou finishing 4th out of 5 in her heat in W1X was also disappointing, but I think we will see her in another category to try and qualify for Paris.

Sakkari lost to Muchova here last year in the second round. It's a really tough draw, but at this point it seems obvious that these "draw reveals" are not random but rigged. Sad but true...

team: Men: Single Sculls: Stefanos Ntouskos Pair: Dimitrios Boukouvalas and Zisis Boukouvalas Lightweight Double Sculls: Petros Gkaidatzis and Antonios Papakonstantinou Women: Single Sculls: Evangelia Fragkou Lightweight Single Sculls: Evangelia Anastasiadou Lightweight Double Sculls: Zoi Fitsiou and Dimitra Kontou I'm surprised we didn't send a men's double sculls after last year we had Kalandaridis/Palaiopanos make Final A at the World Championships. I thought them along with the other three men's boats would be the ones we try to send to Paris. I expect a lot of changes in the women's crews over the next few months Fragkou has won a bunch of U19 and U23 medals in single sculls, double sculls, and pair. Now she is back in the single sculls Anastasiadou won medals last year in single sculls (Euros), lightweight single sculls (World U23 and Euro U23), and then reached the A Final at the World Championships in the lightweight double with Kontou. Now she is in the lightweight single sculls again, when she should be focusing on an Olympic category as it is a pre-Olympic year... Bourmpou, the Kyridou sisters, and Tsamopoulou are all competing in the NCAA Championships this weekend, so I guess they will be joining the national team afterwards. Also, I'm surprised we aren't even attempting to send a women's double sculls here. Natsioula won three gold medals last year in that event (European U23, World U19 with a world record, and European U19), and should've been given a shot at the senior level in my opinion.