89th GREEK NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS
- August 5th – August 6th
- LCM (50m)
- Results
The 89th edition of the Greek National Championships wrapped up earlier this month, with just under 500 swimmers representing 73 clubs competing.
Greece’s elite were in the water, with the likes of Apostolos Christou, Apostolos Papastamos and Kristian Gkolomeev all making their presence known.
For Christou, the 23-year-old Olympian completed a trifecta of victories across the men’s backstroke events. He topped the 50m back podium in a mark of 25.09, the 100m back in a time of 53.23, and the 200m back in a time of 1:58.18.
His 100m back performance was especially impressive, with his mark here representing a new lifetime best. Entering this 2-day meet, Christou’s PB sat at the 53.36 he put up in the semi-final of the 2016 European Championships. With his outing here, he sliced .13 off of that result and inches closer to the so-far elusive national record of 53.03 Aristeidis Grigoriadis put on the books back in 2009.
Another multiple winner came in the form of sprinter Gkolomeev, with the former Alabama standout grabbing gold in the 50m free and 50m fly events. The 50m freestyle silver medalist from last year’s World Championships touched in a time of 22.37 in the former event and 24.21 in the latter to clinch the titles.
The longer freestyle events on the men’s side saw a sweep take place, courtesy of Konstantinos Englezakis. The man who has already qualified for the 800m free for next year’s Olympic GAmes got on the board here in that event with a time of 7:59.23.
That’s well off the 7:51.27 scorcher the 19-year-old produced in France this past February to qualify for Tokyo, but enough to edge out the rest of the Greek field at these Nationals.
In the 200m free, Englezakis pumped out a new lifetime best to take the gold. Entering this meet, the teen had never before been under the 1:50 barrier, owning a PB of 1:50.04 as relay lead-off in prelims at last year’s European Junior Championships.
However, he managed to crush that result in spades, hitting the wall in a time of 1:48.31 to make his presence known in this event.
Finally, Englezakis tackled the 400m free, where he was also successful. HIs time of 3:52.00 took the top prize and checks-in as his 5th fastest performance to date.
Former NC State ace Andreas Vazaios rocked a time of 53.43 to take the men’s 100m fly and he also hit a time of 2:00.06 to reap gold in the 200m IM. That latter time was good enough to edge out Papastamos, who settled for silver in 2:01.28.
Papastamos did, however, snag gold in the 400m IM, hitting the wall in a time of 4:18.55. The man rose to instant fame when he busted out the swim of his life last year at the World Junior Championships. There in Budapest, the Greek swimmer crushed a time of 4:11.93 to establish a new World Junior Record.
Anna Ntountounaki made things happen in the women’s fly events, wrapping up victories in both the 50m and 100m sprints. The 24-year-old took the 50m ain a time of 27.06 and beat the 100m field by over 1 1/2 seconds to post a winning time of 59.33 in the longer event.
Ntounounaki is the Greek national record holder in both of these events, owning lifetime bests of 26.22 and 57.77, respectively. Last year she became Greece’s first-ever European Short Course medalist with her bronze in the 100m fly.
Among the younger set, 16-year-old Nicolas Antoniou of Cyprus raced his way to a time of 50.30 in the 100m freestyle to notch a new national junior record. Splitting 24.16/26.15, the teen surpassed his own PB and junior record of 50.70 he produced at the end of July at the Greek Junior Championships.
His time of 50.30 now ranks him as the 2nd fastest man from Cyprus ever in the event, sitting only behind national record holder Alexandre Bakhtiarov. Bakhiatrov put up the fastest time ever for a man from Cyprus with his mark of 50.18 at the 2009 World Championships.
Antonious now ranks 8th among European men aged 18&U in the 100m freestyle. For an additional perspective, his time would rank him as the 11th fastest American man aged 15-16 all-time.
