Apostolos Siskos Posts 1:56.63 200 Back To Kick Off 2025 Acropolis Open

2025 ACROPOLIS SWIM OPEN

• Friday, May 2nd – Sunday, May 3rd
• Athens, Greece
• LCM (50m)
• SwimSwam Preview
• Meet Central
• Results

The 2025 Acropolis Swim Open kicked off last night in Athens with a €50,000  ($54,125) prize pool on the line.

Athletes’ performance is judged using the World Aquatics Point Scoring system, and they can also earn prize bonuses for breaking records. The top athletes across events (by stroke, and then by longer distances) will be awarded €350. Coach’s awards will be awarded by points compiled across their athletes.

The competition also represents an opportunity for swimmers to qualify for this summer’s World Championships in Singapore.

Day 1 Highlights

Germany’s Nicole Maier topped the women’s 100m free podium, producing a time of 55.26.

That checked in as a huge personal best for the former Miami University Redhawk, destroying the 56.09 logged at the Apostolos Pavlos meet this past January.

Kalia Antoniou of Cyprus was next to the wall in 55.55 as the only other sub-56-second swimmer, while Nefeli Bilanakou rounded out the podium in 56.40.

In the men’s 400m IM, host nation swimmer Vasileios Sofikitis won gold, registering a time of 4:18.81.

He marked the sole athlete to clear the 4:20 barrier, with Turkey’s Onur Oksuz hitting 4:22.73 followed by Apostolos Papastamos who touched in 4:23.12.

Sofikitis was just over a second outside the World Aquatics ‘A’ standard of 4:17.48 needed to qualify for Singapore.

A meet record went down in the men’s 200m back, as 19-year-old Apostolos Siskos struck gold in 1:56.63.

Siskos opened in 57.16 and brought it home in 59.47 to keep Mexican swimmer Ruiz Najera at bay. Najera settled for silver in 1:58.61 and Nikolaos Papatheodorou bagged bronze in 2:01.59.

As for Siskos, his 1:56.63 represented the 3rd-swiftest performance of his career, one which boasts a lifetime best of 1:55.42 from when he became the 2024 European Championships silver medalist in the event.

Additionally, Siskos’ outing easily cleared the ‘A’ cut of 1:58.07 to qualify the teen for the World Championships. He now ranks 11th in the world on the season.

Stergios-Marios Bilas ripped a meet record of 23.42 en route to topping the men’s 50m fly podium.

The reigning European champion in the event was quick enough to beat Kazakhstan’s Adilbek Mussin who was next to the wall in 23.63. Christos Katrantzis also landed on the podium in 23.83 for bronze.

Bilas’ career-quickest performance remains at the 23.06 logged in the semi-finals last year in Belgrade before he captured gold in 23.15. Bilas also won this 50m fly event at the inaugural U23 Championships in 2023 (23.16).

Additional Notes

• National record holder Anna Ntountounaki turned in a time of 26.08 to win the women’s 50m fly. The 29-year-old scored a new Greek standard just last week, hitting 25.63 for the fastest result of her career. Last night Georgia Damasioti posted 26.58 for silver and Sweden’s Emmy Hallkvist posted 26.80 for bronze.