Apostolos Siskos Breaks Greek Record in 200 Back Prelims in Doha

2024 WORLD AQUATIC CHAMPIONSHIPS

• February 11th – February 18th, 2024
• Doha, Qatar
• LCM (50m)
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• Day 1 Prelims Recap | Day 1 Finals Recap
• Day 2 Prelims Recap | Day 2 Finals Recap
• Day 3 Prelims Recap | Day 3 Finals Recap
• Day 4 Prelims Recap | Day 4 Finals Recap
• Day 5 Prelims Recap

In a sleepy preliminary session on Thursday morning in Doha, Greek 18-year-old Apostolos Siskos provided the brightest light, shaving .08 seconds off the old National Record in prelims of the 200 back and going well-under the Olympic Qualifying Time to affirm his spot at the Paris Olympics.

Siskos, who doesn’t turn 19 until June, was the top qualifier in prelims in 1:56.64. That improves upon his own best time of 1:56.79 from February 2023 and breaks the Greek Record of 1:56.72 that was set in 2022 by Apostolos Christou.

In about a 7 month period from July 2022 to February 2022, Siskos improved his best time in this event from a 1:59.2 to 1:56.7. Since then, though, he stalled out a bit, peaking again at 1:57.4 at last summer’s World Championships.

But on Thursday, he returned to his dropping ways with a new best time.

Splits Comparison:

Note: splits for Christou’s previous record and Siskos’ previous PB were not available because the Hellenic Swimming Federation doesn’t publish splits in most of their domestic meet results.

At the 2023 World Championships, with a fuller field, it took 1:57.28 to make the final of the 200 back and 1:55.34 to medal. Siskos’ time would have finished 8th in that final. Siskos was 5th in prelims there, but added time to finish 12th in the semifinals – so Doha gives him an opportunity to practice three rounds of racing.

The 200 back is viewed as one of the softer events globally heading into the World Championships, so there are opportunities for a young breakthrough swimmer like him to steal a medal – though it will probably take a 1:54 to get there.