Makedonas

2023 United Cup - Group A: Greece 4 - 1 Belgium Alison van Uytvanck BEL d. Despina Papamichail GRE 7-5 2-6 6-3 Stefanos Tsitsipas GRE d. David Goffin BEL 6-3 6-2 Maria Sakkari GRE d. Elise Mertens BEL 6-1 7-5 Stefanos Sakellaridis GRE d. Zizou Bergs BEL 5-7 6-1 6-3 Sakkari/Tsitsipas GRE d. Flipkens/Geerts BEL 6-3 6-2

We don't have all of the information yet but there is some here: https://greekcitytimes.com/2023/01/03/vassilis-topalos-european-boxing/

He had just won gold recently at the 2022 European Junior Boxing Championships. He got severely injured a few weeks ago in training and it seems the injuries were life-threatening EDIT-Okay, I got more information now, he was injured at training matches so he went to the bathroom to put water on his face and then he fainted in the bathroom and hit his head on a hard surface.

16 yo boxer Vasileios Topalos died today, he was a member of Greek junior national teams

2023 United Cup - Group A: Greece 4 - 1 Bulgaria Despina Papamichail GRE d. Isabella Shinikova BUL 3-6 6-4 6-1 Stefanos Tsitsipas GRE d. Grigor Dimitrov BUL 4-6 6-2 7-6(4) Maria Sakkari GRE d. Viktoriya Tomova BUL 6-3 6-2 Dimitar Kuzmanov BUL d. Michail Pervolarakis GRE 6-1 6-1 Sakkari/Tsitsipas GRE d. Topalova/Andreev BUL 6-4 6-4

-The tennis season in general. It's great to have two top players from your country, and also we have several young Greek women moving up the rankings so hopefully they continue to do so. And of course to watch players from other countries as well. -FIBA World Cup and Eurobasket Women. I hope our national teams do well. -Euro 2024 qualifying. Greece is in a tough group with France and the Netherlands, but I am curious to see how we will do and also we are guaranteed a spot in the play-offs via Nations League so there is less pressure. -Athletics outdoor season. Mainly the World Championships but also last year we had the National Championships in Thessaloniki and it was a very nice experience, I hope to be able to go in 2023 as well. -World Championships again for water polo. -Rowing season. From May to September there are a lot of regattas and it is always nice to see Greece win a lot of medals, I think this year we won 12 gold medals as well as other silver and bronze. -Hopefully many Olympic quotas for Greece in various different sports.

Why were Krejcikova/Siniakova not in the team category?

No Greeks in any of these lists... It can be the first time since 1964 that Greece doesn't qualify anyone in weightlifting. Such a shame considering how good we were in this sport not too long ago, although it is not surprising as the interest in this sport is very low and other sports have more favourable reputations in our country for various reasons... Anyways we were barely hanging on to this qualification streak as we had only 1 weightlifter in London, Rio, and Tokyo. Iakovidis was in Rio and Tokyo but I don't think he'll be able to make it to Paris, hopefully I'm wrong. Our best chance is 22 yo Sofia Georgopoulou in the women's 59kg: Georgopoulou had 192kg as her best result of 2021 and 204kg in 2022, so hopefully she can keep making progress as she is probably close already. We also have 21 yo Maria Kardara in this same category who lifted 191kg this year (she had 182kg in 2021, 167kg in 2019, 137kg in 2017), so both are improving with each year.

Tentoglou, Drisbioti, men's national water polo team and Pomaski were the winners I'm very happy for Tentoglou as he deserved to win last year and was robbed (in my opinion)

Olympiacos defeated Ethnikos Piraeus 11-4 in the final of the Women's LEN Super Cup. It is no surprise as Ethnikos lost a lot of players from last season, but still good to have an all-Greek final. This is Olympiacos' third women's Super Cup title. They also won in 2015 and 2021. 5th Super Cup title for Greece, now tied with Italy for the most of all countries.

New U19 world record in indoor rowing from Greece's Dimitra-Eleni Kontou. She recorded a time of 7:04.09 last weekend at the National Championships in Thessaloniki, which is a world record in the lightweight category. She is 17 yo so she has a chance to improve this again next year. Greece's also has the U19 world indoor record from Sofia Asoumanaki from 2015 in the open category. So we have both U19 women's world records - open and lightweight

Ένα σπουδαίο Παγκόσμιο ρεκόρ ανέδειξε ο έλεγχος των χρόνων των νικητών του 1ου Πανελληνίου πρωταθλήματος κλειστής Κωπηλασίας της Θεσσαλονίκης με τις κορυφαίες επιδόσεις στον κόσμο που πλέον καταχωρεί η Διεθνής Ομοσπονδία Κωπηλασίας. Το πέτυχε στην ελαφρά κατηγορία η Μιλένα Κοντού του ΝΟ Μυτιλήνης στο αγώνισμα των 2000μ. ηλικιακής κατηγορίας 17-18 ετών τερματίζοντας το εργόμετρό της σε χρόνο 7:04.09. Ένας χρόνος που καταρρίπτει το προηγούμενο ρεκόρ που άντεχε από το μακρινό 2013 , εδώ και 9 χρόνια όταν η τότε 18χρονη Αμερικανίδα Κριστίν Καβάλο είχε σημειώσει χρόνο 7:05.07. Το Παγκόσμιο ρεκόρ της Μιλένας Κοντού είναι το δεύτερο που κατέχει η Ελλάδα μετά από εκείνο που κατέχει από το 2016 η Σοφία Ασουμανάκη και πέτυχε στον Πανελλήνιο αγώνα στου Ρέντη και μάλιστα είναι στην ίδια κατηγορία 17-18 ετών αλλά στη βαριά. Κάτι που σημαίνει ότι η χώρα μας είναι πλέον κυρίαρχη στην συγκεκριμένη κατηγορία των γυναικών αφού κατέχει τα δυο παγκόσμια στο ελαφρύ και το βαρύ αγώνισμα. Αξίζει να σημειωθεί ότι η Μιλένα Κοντού βρέθηκε στη Θεσσαλονίκη μαζί με το κλιμάκιο της Εθνικής ομάδας που προετοιμάζεται στο Σχοινιά και θα παραμείνει ως τις 18 Δεκεμβρίου και κατάφερε να κάνει μια κορυφαία επίδοση παρά την προπονητική επιβάρυνση του κοινοβίου. Η Μιλένα Κοντού αναδείχθηκε το 2022 πρωταθλήτρια Ευρώπης στην κατηγορία Κ23 στο διπλό μαζί με την Στέλλα Νάτσιουλα , ήταν 5η στο Παγκόσμιο πρωτάθλημα της ίδιας κατηγορίας στο σκιφ ενώ μαζί με την Ευαγγελία Αναστασιάδου πήρε μέρος στον τελικό του διπλού στο Παγκόσμιο Ανδρών-Γυναικών ενώ ήταν και 5ες στο Παγκόσμιο Κύπελλο στο Βελιγράδι. Κι όλα αυτά μια αθλήτρια που μόλις τον περασμένο Σεπτέμβριο (23/9/05) έκλεισε τα 17. Συγχαρητήρια Μιλένα.

2022 Greek shortlists from our "journalists": Men: Giannis Antetokounmpo (basketball) Eleftherios Petrounias (gymnastics) Miltiadis Tentoglou (athletics - long jump) Women: Antigoni Drisbioti (athletics - race walking) Anna Korakaki (shooting) Elina Tzengko (athletics - javelin throw) Team: Men's National Water Polo Team Women's National Water Polo Team Olympiacos Women's Water Polo Team Coach: Napoleon Kefalopoulos (athletics- Drisbioti) Giorgos Pomaski (athletics - Tentoglou) Theodoros Vlachos (water polo - men's national team) The winners will be announced on 20 December. We have the rankings for everyone outside the top 3. Some of these results are ridiculous: -In the men's category, swimmer Andreas Vazaios finished 5th. He won two gold and two silver medals at the Mediterranean Games. He did not compete at the World Championships, and his best result at the European Championships was 6th in the men's 200 IM. Yet somehow he finished in 5th place in the voting, ahead of Stefanos Tsitsipas (6th), Stefanos Ntouskos (8th), Kostas Tsimikas (11th - won the Champions League with Liverpool even if he didn't always play), as well as others. -Wrestler Georgios Kougioumtsidis won gold at both the European senior and European U23 Championships this year and is ranked number 5 in his category. He did not get any votes even though a total of 35 men's athletes did. -In the women's category, fencer Despina Georgiadou is ranked 3 in the world in the women's sabre and won bronze at the World Championships. She was number 32 in the voting results for women. Rower Zoi Fitsiou who won silver at the European Championships also did not get selected. -Swimmer Anna Ntountounaki finished 6th for women. She won one gold and two silvers at the Mediterranean Games. Her best result at the World Championships was 9th and 5th at the European Championships. Yet somehow she finished above the likes of artistic swimmer Evangelia Platanioti (two medals at World Aquatics Championships), rower Evangelia Anastasiadou (silver at European championships and gold at World U23, also silver at European U23), wrestler Maria Prevolaraki (ranked 2 in the world, won silver at the European Championships and bronze at World Championships), water polo player Eleftheria Plevritou (MVP at European Championships where Greece won silver, also led Olympiacos to the Euro League title), taekwondo's Theopoula Sarvanaki (silver at World Championships), and also Georgiadou and Fitsiou as mentioned. None of this makes sense. It makes you wonder who is voting and what agendas they have. It seems like the swimmers are extremely overrated... Georgiadou and Kougioumtsidis got robbed the most IMO. Georgiadou I thought might even be top 3 and instead they put her at 32? With people like Valentini Grammatikopoulou above her? Come on, this is a joke.

Despina had a 6-1 lead and collapsed afterwards

Despina Georgiadou into another semifinal!

ATP Rankings - Top 5 Singles: 4. Stefanos Tsitsipas 469. Michail Pervolarakis 887. Stefanos Sakellaridis 954. Alexandros Skorilas 976. Markos Kalovelonis ATP Rankings - Top 5 Doubles: 73. Stefanos Tsitsipas 148. Petros Tsitsipas 177. Michail Pervolarakis 223. Markos Kalovelonis 655. Alexandros Skorilas WTA Rankings - Top 5 Singles: 6. Maria Sakkari 160. Despina Papamichail 197. Valentini Grammatikopoulou 311. Sapfo Sakellaridi 556. Martha Matoula WTA Rankings - Top 5 Doubles: 154. Valentini Grammatikopoulou 211. Despina Papamichail 226. Sapfo Sakellaridi 455. Eleni Christofi 498. Maria Sakkari

Η Πρεβολαράκη είναι στο Νο.2 της παγκόσμιας κατάταξης της κατηγορίας των 53 κιλών Επίσης ο Κουγιουμτσίδης βρίσκεται στο Νο.5 των 79 κιλών

2022 European Junior Boxing Championships: GOLD: Emmanouil Fotiadis (Men's -63 kg) Vasileios Topalos (Men's -60 kg) Anna-Maria Trifylli (Women's -46 kg) SILVER: Panagiota Kouzilou (Women's -57 kg) BRONZE: Maria-Efstathia Dasionaki (Women's -63 kg) Maria Georgopoulou (Women's -48 kg)

Η Γεωργιάδου βρίσκεται στο νο.3 στην παγκόσμια κατατάξη, και η Γκουντούρα βρίσκεται στο νο.5

Greek National Team Medals - 2021: Silver - Olympics (Men) Silver - U17 European Championships (Men) Silver - U17 European Championships (Women) Silver - U20 World Championships (Women) Bronze - World League (Men) Bronze - U15 European Championships (Men) Greek National Team Medals - 2022: Silver - European Championships (Women) Silver - U18 World Championships (Women) Silver - U16 World Championships (Men) Silver - U16 World Championships (Women) Bronze - World Championships (Men) Bronze - U19 European Championships (Women) Εύχομαι το 2023 να πάρουμε επιτέλους ένα χρυσό μετάλλιο...

Definitely not looked at as positively as it was at the time, but still one of the most remembered moments. Same with Halkia. Everyone in Greece still knows those names. No one in Greece knows who Emilia Tsoulfa is, for example (gold medalist in sailing in 2004, but she barely got media attention because she wasn't in an "exciting" event).