Makedonas

Now she is in the final of WTA Lyon!

Αδαμοπούλου: 4.37 =PB Φλωρου-Δημητριαδου: 4.00 PB Ριζος: 5.45 PB (είχε 5.35 στον ανοιχτό και 5.31 στον κλειστό) Στο μήκος γυναικών, η Βασιλική Χαϊτιδου πήρε το χρυσό μετάλλιο στο Βαλκανικό Πρωτάθλημα με άλμα στα 6.25μ, που αποτελεί απόλυτο ατομικό ρεκόρ (είχε 6.24 στον ανοιχτό και 6.06 στον κλειστό). Χειμερινό Κύπελλο Ρίψεων: Η Τζενγκο άνοιξε τη σεζόν με μια καλή βολή (61.37). Στο αντίστοιχο αγώνισμα των ανδρών, ο Τσιτσος έκανε 77.44 (3η καλύτερη επίδοση της καριέρας του, έχει ατομικό 78.22). Στη σφυροβολία ανδρών, ο Φραντζεσκακης ήταν ο νικητής με 77.89 (U23NR). Το ατομικό του ήταν 76.85 από πέρυσι. Ο Αναστασάκης έριξε 77.11μ (2η καλύτερη επίδοση της καριέρας του, έχει ατομικό ρεκόρ στα 77.72 από το 2017). Στη σφυροβολία ανδρών Κ20, ο Κορακιδης έκανε 77.52 U20WL (με 6κ σφύρα). Το ατομικό του ήταν 71.09 από πέρυσι.

Balkan Indoor Championships commentator was calling Slovenian athletes "Slovakians" @hckošice

Silver for our girls! https://www.instagram.com/p/CasCx9pFBZZ/ Christina Papadopoulou speaks English so well . I know she lived in Australia for a few years but she speaks with almost an Australian accent. Well, she didn't make our Tokyo 2020 team because she was 4th for Greece and we could only send three girls, but we are lucky that Australia also qualified three so they didn't need to try and 'steal 'her from us or anything Now we need a second male race walker who is good enough, this way we can qualify the mixed 35km team for Paris, so we'll be able to send the maximum amount of 5 female race walkers to the Olympics. Drisbioti said she wants to go to Paris, and she'll be 40 then. Tsinopoulou will be 33 and said she also wants to go to Los Angeles at age 37. Filtisakou, Papadopoulou, Fiaska, Kourkoutsaki, Antonopoulou, Alikanioti, Bochori, Seferiadi etc. are all much younger.

Well it seems that with many withdrawals, plus with Russia and Belarus not sending athletes, Polak probably will make it in the end.

Best of luck to him! Similar to Greece where a lot of our athletes compete on Survivor in recent years. Our sprinter Katerina Dalaka actually won the show a couple years ago. Actually, she competed on the show for two seasons so she basically gave up any chance she had on qualifying for Tokyo to make money and attract sponsors. She is our most followed female athlete besides Sakkari. She has never qualified for the Olympics (I think she has a chance for 4x100 in Paris), and has more followers than our Olympic gold medal winners (Korakaki and Stefanidi). https://www.instagram.com/katerina_dalaka/ https://www.worldathletics.org/athletes/greece/katerina-dalaka-14376933 Now this steeplechase runner is the newest contestant: https://www.worldathletics.org/athletes/greece/stavroula-chrisaidi-14535408 On the show they introduced her as a "bronze European champion" which I guess is how they tried to exaggerate her bronze at the Balkan Youth Championships in 2013 A Greek wrestler (who competed in Tokyo and won gold at the World U23 Championships last year) also competed this season, and so did a female rower who has won medals at the World U23 and European U23 Championships a few years ago. It worked for Dalaka I guess (although her results regressed while she wasn't training properly), and now this trend seems to have been happening not only in Greece but also in Brazil. Also we had a taekwondo athlete compete in Greece's Next Top Model a few years ago. Then she returned to the national team afterwards. https://www.instagram.com/jo_desylla/

I know this is off-topic, but when does Ieva's ban end?

It was announced today that World Sailing is officially allowing her to change nationalities. The Hellenic Olympic Committee was trying to block/delay this. There was previously a rumour that she would not be allowed to switch until after Paris 2024, and that she would have to skip the next Olympics but that no longer seems to be true. However there is also a rumour that she might compete for Cote d'Ivoire instead of Portugal I think the Hellenic Sailing Federation is really shameful. This is the second time this has happened in recent history, as Kyranakou (aka Zegers) became Dutch and she competed for them in Rio and Tokyo. Obviously the sailing federation is not okay because this doesn't happen really with our other federations (except for people who weren't good enough for Greece anyways, or in team sports went to countries where they had one parent from so they could have a better chance at winning medals). However, I don't like the way Karachaliou handled this either. She acts so innocent and like a true victim but I don't really buy it. She had some difficulties since 2017 with the federation so they definitely should have taken steps sooner to address this, but there was a lot of shock/outrage from the Hellenic Olympic Committee when she announced a few months ago that she is done with Greece. They wanted to solve the problems with her but she refused. Prior to that (shortly after the Tokyo Olympics), she was offered some money from them which she declined because she already made up her mind (the Hellenic Olympic Committee was unaware of her intentions to stop representing Greece). She also had a Greek sponsor (possibly more than one, but definitely at least one that I know of) who supported her a lot until Tokyo and they are very unhappy with her now. Of course there are two sides to every story, but it seems a little stubborn from her to not accept help from people who wanted to support her. She can say that "Greece kicked her out," and that might be partially true, but in the end she could have stayed but basically told everyone "it's too late" and just left instead of trying to sort her issues out. Other athletes have come out and said that the Hellenic Olympic Committee was always good to them, and Karachaliou even admitted that she received money and her reasons for leaving Greece aren't only economical... As I said, she definitely had her reasons and her problems with the sailing federation, but at the end many people tried to help her and solve her issues with the federation, but she didn't care. I know she must've been frustrated after years of this, but it's very disappointing that she wouldn't give Greece another chance, especially after this news became viral and more people started paying attention. That was the perfect opportunity for positive change but instead she decided to walk away from her country. I'm sure her sponsorship situation also wasn't ideal, but the Hellenic Olympic Committee got her a sponsor and she kind of turned her back on the people that supported her these years. A lot of Greeks will still cheer for her when she switches to her new country. Personally, I will not be. I'm sorry if that sounds mean, but when you have problems with people and the other people want to fix them and you don't want to fix them, it says a lot about your character.

@Dunadan Is there anywhere I can see full results? Thank you.

Our three-time Olympian Alexandros Papamichail cannot compete and has to return to Greece. He only received one dose of vaccination (he didn't get the second one yet) but has proof of Covid infection which they thought would be enough but apparently it is not. Now it has become somewhat of a scandal in Greek athletics with many people to be blamed for this mistake.

I'm not sure how much of a difference it makes, but I think it's important to point out that the US was not trying to annex Iraq or any other Middle Eastern country...

I actually did that last year for TAISC. I was new to this website and didn't really know, so I just picked the Greek song on my own without discussing it first with the other Greeks That song got us our best result ever though, so I guess in the end I made the right choice

You must have not been paying attention last year when Aliyev did that to Armenians...

We beat Turkey again, good thing I was wrong Croatia came from behind to beat Sweden in OT. They are now 1-3 instead of 0-4. This win probably saved their qualification chances, for now at least.

Same with us, everyone is always happy and hugging each other Looks like our team for Belgrade will be: M: Tentoglou (long jump), Karalis (pole vault), Douvalidis (60 hurdles) W: Spanoudaki (60), Vasiliou (400) Small chances for Zikos (M 60), Pantazis (M triple jump), Pesiridou (W 60 hurdles) and Polak (W pole vault) to still make it. Stefanidi (W pole vault) already has the standard but she hasn't competed yet in 2022 and no one has any news on her.

Some highlights from the Greek Indoor Championships: Karalis and Tentoglou were the two big stars. Both won their titles quite easily. Karalis was chasing the Greek indoor record (5.85) and had some good tries at 5.86 but couldn't clear the bar. His first attempt especially was very close. He has been close to 5.86 many times lately, I think soon he will clear it. After a few years of his progress stalling, he seems healthy again and ready to take it to the next level. He has consistently been clearing 5.75/5.80 lately and he is still just 22 years old. Tentoglou only did 3 or 4 jumps. His best was 8.20. He didn't seem happy with it, although that would still probably be enough to win a medal at the upcoming World Indoor Championships. Still far from his best, although his injury seems to be gone which is an important sign. Irini Vasiliou (who ran 400m in Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020) made her 2022 debut. However, she did not compete in the 400m. Instead, she ran 800m for the first time in her life. She ended up winning the title with 2:10.94. Obviously that time is nothing special, but the level in this event was quite low so with some stronger competitors racing against her, I'm sure she'd improve that time by several seconds. She's already 31 yo (almost 32) so this is strange, although she said she will compete in 400m at the upcoming World Indoors (she already has the standard from last year). She originally said she would retire after Tokyo, then she said she would retire after Belgrade, but somehow I feel like she will keep postponing her retirement until Paris . Perhaps she wants to test her limits in 800m and see how well she can do. 21 yo Artemis Anastasiou is a nice surprise this season. She improved her PB in the 60m from 7.75 in 2020, to 7.60 in 2021, to now 7.41 in 2022. Quite impressive to see, and suddenly we might have a good chance of qualifying a women's 4x100 relay to Paris. Spanoudaki won the title with 7.23 and seems confident that she can run under 7.20 in Belgrade. In the men's high jump, 18 yo Grigorios Chasos won the title with 2.19, a U20WL. His previous PB was 2.12 from a few weeks ago, and before that his PB was 2.07 from May 2021. Quite a remarkable improvement. He also had some good attempts at 2.22, but couldn't clear the bar. The big disappointment of the day was the women's pole vault competition. A 17 yo (Alina-Amalia Florou-Dimitriadou) won the title with 3.95. A good result for her age, but quite sad that 3.95 was enough for the title. Stefanidi and Kyriakopoulou did not compete, and Polak started from 4.15 and had three missed attempts. It was a huge shock and she was crying afterwards. A few of our other pole vaulters did not compete (two are studying in the United States and doing the indoor season there, others are skipping the indoor season), so it's pretty crazy that Greece is one of the strongest nations in this event with a lot of depth, but couldn't get anyone above 4m in the national championships

Σήμερα έκανε 2.19. U20 WL 15.83 σήμερα Αλλά στιγμιότυπα από σήμερα: Ατομικό ρεκόρ η Αναΐς Καραγιάννη στα 60μ εμπόδια με 8.36. Είχε 8.54 από το 2019. Στα 200μ γυναικών, η Αναστασίου κέρδισε το Πανελλήνιο Πρωτάθλημα με 23.96 (ατομικό κλειστού - είχε 24.26). Η Εμμανουηλιδου έκανε Πανελλήνιο ρεκορ Κ20 με 24.42. Το ντεμπούτο της στα 800μ έκανε η Ειρήνη Βασίλειου, η οποία πήρε το χρυσό με 2:10.94. Ας δούμε ποσο ψηλά μπορεί να πάει σε αυτό το αγώνισμα…

FINA Junior World Swimming Champs have been cancelled

Unless Polak can somehow make it, it looks like there will be no Greek women in field events for the first time in over 20 years. Karydi isn't doing well enough to qualify for this, and Kyriakopoulou and Papachristou are both officially skipping the indoor season. We still haven't heard anything from Stefanidi (who has the qualifying standard for Belgrade), but it looks like she won't compete since she didn't sign up for the National Indoor Championships and is nowhere to be found.

I voted for that option because you said this. We want you to be able to compete and we should all be willing to do what is best for you in order to accommodate you. You are the one who is inconvenienced by the current situation in your country, so we should follow whatever you want to do. I hope that you can stay safe during these difficult times in your country.

Σήμερα στο Πανελλήνιο έκανε και άλλο ένα μεγάλο ατομικό ρεκόρ - 7.41! Νικήτρια ήταν η Σπανουδάκη που ισοφάρισε το ατομικό της με 7.23 Στα 60μ γυναικών είχαμε και αλλά τρία μεγάλα ατομικά ρεκόρ από νέες αθλήτριες: Τσουκαλά - 7.54 (είχε 7.69) Μπαρτζου - 7.70 (είχε 7.78) Ντουγκου - 7.75 (είχε 7.89, είναι 15!) Στα 60μ ανδρών είχαμε τέσσερεις νέους αθλητές με καλές επιδόσεις, τις οποίες αποτελούσαν ατομικά ρεκορ: Χρυσαφης - 6.73 (είχε 6.80) Γκαραγκανης - 6.75 (είχε 6.80) Παναγιωτοπουλος - 6.78 (είχε 6.81) Χαϊδάς - 6.82 (είχε 6.90) Στο ύψος γυναικών ξεχώρισε η Χριστογεωργου (όχι Χριστογεωργιου η Καραγεώργου όπως έλεγαν οι σχολιαστές της ΕΡΤ…), η οποία έκανε μεγάλο ατομικο ρεκορ με 1.87 (είχε 1.83 από πέρυσι, ενώ πριν την πανδημία είχε ατομικό 1.75 από το μακρινό 2015). Βρίσκεται πλέον στο γκρουπ του Πομασκι.

I'm not saying I personally have any issues with China (or any country), but a lot of people were against the Winter Olympics being held in China.

17 yo Anastasia Antonopoulou withdrew from the upcoming World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships due to "personal reasons regarding the protocols set by the organisers." I guess that's another way of saying "they are requiring vaccination and I am unvaccinated" ?

18 yo Nikolaos Gkillas has scored in two of Olympiacos' last three LEN Champions League games. Good to see yet another young talent coming out of Greece, especially since so many of our national team players retire at such young ages compared to players from other countries.

I remember seeing some petitions going around social media, which I believe were because of the Azeri entrant's controversial comments on the conflict. I don't think they were against Azerbaijan competing in general, but they were against this particular artist. However, I doubt the Armenian government and/or national broadcaster were in any way involved in these petitions. I think anyone can just go on change.org and start a petition. There was even one last year made by a religious Greek Orthodox group in Cyprus for their song "El Diablo (The Devil)" to be banned