Makedonas

@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

2008-born Antonia Rakopoulou swam 1500 freestyle today in 16:54.70 to win the national winter championship. Her previous PB was 17:09.32. Greek women's swimming has almost always been extremely less successful than Greek men's swimming for some strange reason (and as our men keep improving year after year, our women keep declining), so it's nice to finally have a decent female prospect after many years. Especially since it would be hard to see Anna Ntountounaki sticking around much longer as she's already 26 years old. It would be interesting to see what her time would be at an event abroad with a higher level of competition. Obviously her time is nothing special but considering her age, one would expect her to make huge improvements each year for the next several years.

When Greece hosted the 2004 Olympics, so many people from the Anglosphere were complaining and criticising us 24/7. Perhaps they should have been more appreciative because now we are stuck with the likes of Russia, China, Qatar, etc. hosting everything

I am against the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but the EBU allowed Efendi from Azerbaijan to compete last year, so this is just a slap in the face to Armenians in my opinion. No one cared about them, and the Azeri singer openly supported Aliyev's actions numerous times on her social media. I guess because his name wasn't Putin, no one cared. Shame. Ironically Armenia were the ones who did not compete in Eurovision last year due to the conflict (although they voluntarily withdrew).

Swiatek finally beat Sakkari. I wonder if she'll follow Sakkari back on Instagram now (she unfollowed Maria last year after one of their matches, I guess it was hard to follow someone who beat her three times in a row)

And now Iceland beat Italy by...two points Greece beat Turkey 72-71. It seems like we always find a way to beat Turkey in basketball no matter what. We have a really good record against them from memory. Sadly, I'm not sure if this record will remain as we play them again on Monday, in Turkey. Big respect to the two major Greek clubs for letting some of their guys play today. Olympiacos had four players on the team (who played in yesterday's win over Olimpia Milano), and Panathinaikos risked their game against Red Star Belgrade (which they ended up winning today) by sending Papagiannis to the national team instead. We really needed a strong center today and he had a great game. Greece, Olympiacos, and Panathinaikos all won so in the end it seemed like a good strategy . Of course this was still not our "normal" national team but for such an important game it was necessary to try to get some of these guys, especially after that embarrassing loss to GB in November with our random non-NBA/non-Euroleague players.

@dcro What's her story? Married to an Armenian? Has an Armenian mother?

Greece will have a very small team. Karalis and Tentoglou will be our biggest medal hopes. It looks like the "old guard" of Stefanidi, Papachristou, Kyriakopoulou, and Filippidis will not be there. None of them have competed yet in 2022. The Greek indoor championships are next weekend so maybe 1-2 of them will show up but it seems unlikely. Stefanidi definitely isn't retiring yet. Kyriakopoulou gave an interview a few months ago saying she had big goals for 2022 which included the World Indoor Championships so it's a bit surprising. Filippidis last year seemed like he had nothing left in him and he's already 35. Perhaps the girls are injured and/or pregnant? Papachristou's coach said a few months ago that he hadn't heard anything from her since Tokyo. Also the other three have all already won medals at the World Indoors, but it is the one medal (along with an Olympic medal which is too unrealistic) missing from Kyriakopoulou's CV.

I will also be participating once again