Makedonas

Diana Dymchenko now representing

Kynigakis tested positive for Covid and is out. Too bad, I wanted to see how he would do after his impressive 5th place finish at last year's Olympics as a 22 yo

TEAM GREECE Men: Pole vault - Emmanouil Karalis Long jump - Miltiadis Tentoglou Hammer throw - Michail Anastasakis, Christos Frantzeskakis 35km walk - Alexandros Papamichail Women: High jump - Tatiana Gusin Pole vault - Nikoleta Kyriakopoulou, Eleni Polak, Ekaterini Stefanidi Triple jump - Spyridoula Karydi Discus throw - Chrysoula Anagnostopoulou Hammer throw - Stamatia Scarvelis Javelin throw - Elina Tzengko 20km walk - Antigoni Drisbioti, Kiriaki Filtisakou, Christina Papadopoulou 35km walk - Antigoni Drisbioti, Efstathia Kourkoutsaki, Christina Papadopoulou

Yeah, it's the first time ever that we will not be sending any track athlete to the World Athletics Championships. Still we are sending 17 athletes to Eugene which is more than we sent to Daegu 2011, Beijing 2015 and Doha 2019. Same amount as Moscow 2013. If Spanoudaki didn't get covid, she 95% would've qualified in the women's 200m and also had a chance in the 100m. Irini Vasiliou won the women's 400m in the National Championships with 52.32, but she didn't compete in enough races to make it via ranking. Karagianni is 44th and Pesiridou 45th in the women's 100 hurdles in the Race to Oregon, so it's unlikely that they'll get in as they would need 4-5 more withdrawals. Pesiridou really should've made it but her performances were bad this year, until recently she finally started doing better again. Gnafaki 46th in the women's 400 hurdles. Needed to be top 40. Douvalidis had a lot of issues so he didn't try to make it to Eugene (men's 110 hurdles). First time he's missing the World Championships since 2009. Going to be weird not competing in any track events. We have 7 jumpers, 5 throwers, and 5 race walkers. Also it's the first time since 2007 that Filippidis doesn't compete. He hasn't been anywhere since Tokyo so I think it's safe to say he retired, he's 35 now and was mediocre the last few years.

2022 Wimbledon Men's singles: First round: (4) Stefanos Tsitsipas GRE d. (Q) Alexander Ritschard SUI 7-6(1) 6-3 5-7 6-4 Second round: (4) Stefanos Tsitsipas GRE vs. Jordan Thompson AUS Women's singles: First round: (5) Maria Sakkari GRE d. (Q) Zoe Hives AUS 6-1 6-4 Second round: (5) Maria Sakkari GRE d. Viktoriya Tomova BUL 6-4 6-3 Third round: (5) Maria Sakkari GRE vs. Tatjana Maria GER Women's doubles: First round: (15) Kichenok UKR/Olaru ROU d. Grammatikopoulou GRE/Plipuech THA 6-2 6-3

3h fora pou phre to xruso stous Mesogeiakous Agwnes!

She beat Bencic and Sakkari at the US Open, both of whom were top 20 at the time. There might be more but these are the only ones I'm sure of off the top of my head. I still don't understand how Sakkari lost to her at the US Open

With Serbia and Hungary out, we are the only medalists from last year's Olympics that advanced to the semifinals. It's a big opportunity for us... Our senior men's team has won 13 medals across all competitions (including Olympics and World Championships, World League etc), but never a gold (not even in Mediterranean Games). Our goalkeeper got injured today and had to be replaced in the second period, I hope he will be okay to play the rest of the tournament because his replacement is not as good and it shows...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natasa_Rybanska

We are the first team through to the SFs It's our 5th time making the World Championships SFs, but we've never made the final. There is a first time for everything

Tsitsipas and Sakkari both won their first round matches, it's actually the first time ever at Wimbledon (Tsitsipas lost first round in 2021/2019/2017 and Sakkari lost first round in 2018 - the only previous time Tsitsipas won)

Very disappointing performance last night from our girls There is still some Greek interest in the semifinals, as the Netherlands have a Greek coach and Haralabidis on the US (who scored 6 goals against Spain in QF) is Greek and used to play for our national team. Also I thought it was just Parkes from New Zealand, but I see that Hungary also has a girl from Slovakia and a girl from France on their team.

https://sportsfeed.gr/latreia-gia-tentogloy-photofeed/ You can see some photos here, of the crowds for Tentoglou

Top 20 - 2022 Women's Pole Vault 1. Ekaterini Stefanidi (1990) 2022-4.65 PB-4.91 (2017) 2. Nikoleta Kyriakopoulou (1986) 2022-4.50 PB-4.83 (2015) 2. Eleni Polak (1996) 2022-4.50 PB-4.71i (2021) 4. Ariadni Adamopoulou (2000) 2022-4.37i =PB (2021) 5. Anastasia Retsa (2003) 2022-4.15 PB 5. Iliana Triantafyllou (2005) 2022-4.15 PB 7. Alina-Amalia Florou-Dimitriadou (2004) 2022-4.10 PB 8. Ekaterini Vagena (1995) 2022-4.09 PB-4.25 (2021) 9. Myrto Kassotaki (1999) 2022-4.00 =PB (2018, 2019) 9. Eva Kotsacheili (2001) 2022-4.00 PB 11. Iro Vradi (2004) 2022-3.95 PB 12. Evgenia-Maria Panagiotou (2006) 2022-3.85 PB 13. Petroula Voltea (2006) 2022-3.80 PB 13. Nefeli-Evdoxia Sklavounou (2003) 2022-3.80 PB-3.85 (2020) 15. Milena Postika (2002) 2022-3.75i PB-4.00 (2018, 2019, 2020i, 2021) 16. Anastasia Bouboulidi (2008) 2022-3.70 PB 17. Emine Topal (2004) 2022-3.60 PB-3.72 (2021) 17. Markella-Theopoula Theodoridou (1999) 2022-3.60 PB-3.80 (2019) 19. Konstantina-Kalliopi Lathoura (2002) 2022-3.50 PB-3.85 (2019) 19. Georgia Tranou (2008) 2022-3.50 PB

Correction @Olympian1010 only Chrysochos was top 20, but both made the Australian Open junior quarterfinals. Efstathiou peaked at number 42 in the junior rankings despite making the Australian quarterfinals and US Open round of 16 in the same year. (Yes I just fact checked myself )

Chrysochos and Efstathiou were both top 20 juniors and made the Australian Open quarterfinals

Δυστυχώς ο Χρήστου έχει συνηθίσει να κάνει την καλύτερη του κούρσα στους ημιτελικούς και όχι στους τελικούς… Ο 18χρόνος Σταμου φαίνεται να έχει μέλλον. Κολύμπησε τα 100 πεταλούδα σε 52.77 και έγινε Νο.3 όλων των εποχών στην Ελλάδα (το πανελλήνιο ρεκόρ είναι 52.41). Ο Σταμου πήγε στη Βουδαπέστη με ατομικό ρεκόρ 53.05, ενώ πριν από 4 μήνες το ατομικό του ρεκόρ ήταν 54.43… Η Ντουντουνακη πρέπει κάποια στιγμή να μπει σε μεγάλο τελικό. Πέρυσι 9η στα 100 πεταλούδα στους Ολυμπιακούς, έχασε την πρόκριση για .06. Φετος στο Παγκοσπιο πάλι 9η στα 100 πεταλούδα και έχασε την πρόκριση για .02. Ακόμα και στα 50 πεταλούδα, τερμάτισε 10η και έχασε την πρόκριση για .14. Το καλό είναι ότι έχει βελτιωθεί πάρα πολύ. Στα 100 πεταλούδα, ήταν 23η το 2015 (Παγκόσμιο), 17η το 2016 (Ολυμπιακούς), 22η το 2017 (Παγκόσμιο), 15η το 2019 (Παγκόσμιο), 9η το 2021 (Ολυμπιακούς) και 9η το 2022 (Παγκόσμιο).

I got to attend the Greek National Championships this past weekend! It was a great experience for me. We hadn’t had anything important in Thessaloniki in athletics since the 2009 World Athletics Final, which I remember wanting to go to but did not (I was a lot younger). We had the U20 National Championships last year and I could not go that weekend although it went well so now we got the National Championships for seniors. The stadium seats 28.000 so it was going to be hard to fill obviously, but it’s located very close to the city centre so it’s easily accessible. I’m not sure how it is in other countries but for Greece these were decent crowds for athletics. I wasn’t sure what to expect but I think if we host again next year it will be even better. They are saying we want to host something bigger in the future. It’s a nice stadium and the local football club that uses it hasn’t been in the first division for several years so we might as well. Tentoglou was definitely the highlight (he won with a wind assisted 8.32) and the crowds were really big for his jumps, everyone went close to the sand pit. The women’s pole vault was disappointing. Stefanidi didn’t compete, Kyriakopoulou NM and Polak won with an abysmal 4.25. However we did have a 17 yo local girl (Iliana Triantafyllou) set a new PB of 4.15 (she previously had 4.13 from last week’s U20 National Championships) so that is quite exciting. Men’s triple jump we had 40 yo Tsiamis win for the 100th time. He only had one valid jump and it was 16.82. The men’s hammer was also cool with 5 guys over 70m including a 19 yo (Ioannis Korakidis). Frantzeskakis won with 77.95. Stamatia Scarvelis won the women’s with 70.31, which confirms that she will be in Eugene. She’s had many throws this year over 70m, but all were in small events that didn’t give many points until the last two weekends as she won the Balkans and Nationals. Karalis and Tzengko won their events but were far from their best. The men’s 100m was really impressive with a lot of guys getting good times, most of them very young too. The women’s sprints were disappointing as we have three “stars” but only one competed in each event. Spanoudaki has covid, Emmanouilidou just came back from injury and only ran the 100, and Anastasiou only ran the 200. The women’s 400 was nice. Vasiliou won with 52.32 after not competing in this distance since Tokyo, and 34 yo Ferra with a new PB after so many years (53.19). The women’s 100 hurdles was another good event, as we got to see the young Karagianni vs. experienced Pesiridou. Karagianni beat her at the Balkans but Pesiridou got revenge here (13.18 and Karagianni had 13.21). The men’s 110 hurdles, women’s discus, women’s 400 hurdles, men’s high jump, men’s javelin, women’s shot put were all boring with one clear favourite winning as expected. The men’s shot put, men’s discus and women’s high jump each had several contenders and should have been interesting but in the end the performances were much lower than expected. The women’s triple jump was really poor (Papachristou either quietly retired or is pregnant again and Karydi seems to be regressing). The women’s long jump was somewhat interesting with a lot of young talents who are decent but nothing special. A local girl (Vasiliki Chaitidou) won it with 6.47 which is close to her PR of 6.49. Her progression has been impressive. 5.79 in 2019, 6.08 in 2020, 6.24 in 2021 and now 6.49 in 2022. I'm trying to post some photos but it says the files are too big.

So we will play against the Dutch, who have a Greek coach. He said in an interview on a Greek site that his two biggest wins as a coach were both against Greece (2018 European Championships final and 2020 Olympic qualifier playoff when we choked our lead and failed to score a single goal in the third and fourth periods...) Our team is doing great but I just wonder if we could be doing even better with Diamantopoulou and Eleftheriadou, who both skipped the tournament due to "personal reasons." There might be more to it as Diamantopoulou wasn't competing in the World League this year either. Stamatopoulou is a great replacement in goal for Diamantopoulou though, and the three Plevritou sisters are doing great as is Xenaki. And the young girls like Myriokefalitaki and Ninou are stepping up as they should. Actually, 27 yo Margarita Plevritou and 25 yo Eleftheria Plevritou are the oldest players on the team, everyone else is 24 or younger. Even if Diamantopoulou played, she's only 26 (and Eleftheriadou is 24) so no matter what at least we can be positive about our young team.

Team Hellas is perfect

Really happy that both our teams won their groups, especially since they both had draws (it feels like we always lose out on GD in these situations in all sports, so I'm surprised it worked out in our favour for once). Tbh we should've beaten Croatia and our women should've beaten Spain so it's pretty nice, especially as our teams are quite young. I don't want to underestimate AUS/USA although another medal here after one in Tokyo last year would be quite special!

Apostolos Christou 4th in the men's 50 backstroke (after finishing 5th in the 100). Another great result for Greek swimming, but once again he swam faster in the semifinal than in the final

Not a real event, but 38 yo Antigoni Drisbioti became the oldest Greek to set a national record, this time in the 5000m walk (she also did it earlier this year in the new 35k walk as a 37 yo). With 21:06.40, she broke Christina Deskou's record from 1999 (21:37.78).

9th time in a row that our girls are through to the quarterfinals We needed to beat France by 11 or more. We led 13-4 with less than two minutes to go, then our 17 yo Christina Siouti and 19 yo Eirini Ninou each scored to make it 15-4 and give us first place in the group