2023 ACROPOLIS SWIM OPEN
- Friday, May 5th – Sunday, May 7th
- Athens Olympic Aquatic Center, Athens, Greece
- LCM (50m)
- Meet Site
- World Championships/2024 Olympic Games Qualifier
- Results
- Livestream
Both money and qualification are on the line at the 2023 Acropolis Swim Open taking place Friday, May 5th through Sunday, May 7th in Athens, Greece.
The meet has been sanctioned as a qualifying competition for both this summer’s World Championships, as well as the 2024 Olympic Games set for Paris, France.
The meet has €50,000 ($54,500 USD) available in prize money to be awarded to swimmers and coaches based on performance. Athletes’ performance is judged using the World Aquatics Point Scoring system, and 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.
In addition to host nation swimmers such as Apostolos Papastamos, Kristian Gkolomeev and Anna Ntountounaki, competitors are set to race from South Africa, the Netherlands, Canada, the United States and more.
South Africa’s Pieter Coetze topped the podium twice to open the competition, with the 18-year-old grabbing gold in both the men’s 100m free as well as the 200m back.
In the former event, the Cal commit clocked a time of 49.24 for a new championships record. In the latter, his much stronger event, Coetze earned gold in a time of 1:57.29.
Splitting 57.98/59.31, Coetze produced the only time of the 2back field under the 2:00 barrier. His outing dips under the World Aquatics ‘A’ time needed for Fukuoka, but the South African had already accomplished that feat with his season-best of 1:56.66 notched at the South African National Championships last month. That performance rendered Coetze the 7th fastest man in the world this season.
Coetze’s countryman Matt Sates was also in the water this evening, staking his claim on the men’s 400m IM. 19-year-old Sates touched in a time of 4:17.71 to top the podium. Only runner-up Vasileios Sofikitis of the host nation joined him under the 4:20 barrier, earning runner-up status in 4:19.65.
Sates’ effort here laid waste to the 4:22.26 posted at the aforementioned South African Nationals but still fell just outside the 4:17.48 World Aquatics ‘A’ cut for this summer’s World Championships.
American Michael Andrew was among the men’s 50m fly field this evening and wound up on top in a tight race.
The 24-year-old punched a result of 23.57 to out-touch home nation swimmer Kristian Gkolomeev who settled for silver in 23.68. Fellow Greek athlete Stergios-Marios Bilas rounded out the top 3 in 23.85.
Andrew currently owns a season-best of 23.25 in this 50m fly from the Pro Swim Series in Fort Lauderdale this past March.
Andrew dove in again in the finals season, contesting the men’s 100m breast. The American Olympian was off the podium in 6th, however, registering a mark of 1:02.51.
It was Emre Sakci of Turkey who got to the wall first, establishing a new meet record in 1:00.00. That improved upon his 1:00.13 time trial from the Turkish Team Trials but still outside the 59.75 Fukuoka time standard.
Canadian national record holder Kylie Masse earned the gold in the women’s 200m back, handily defeating the pack in a new championships record.
Masse touched in 2:10.64 to beat the field by over 2 seconds, despite her effort sitting well outside her season-best of 2:07.13 from last month’s Canadian Trials.
Additional Day 1 Winners
- Cyprus swimmer Kalia Antoniou hit a time of 55.08 to reap gold in the women’s 100m freestyle event. Slovenia’s Katja Fain was the only other competitor to get under 56 seconds, with Fain securing silver tonight in 55.96.
- Sweden’s Lisa Nystrand got it done for gold in the women’s 400m IM, clocking a winning effort of 4:49.18.
- The women’s 50m fly saw Anna Ntountounaki of Greece score the victory in a time of 26.17. She now checks in as the 21st swiftest swimmer in the world this season.
- Lithuanian athlete Kotryna Teterevkova was the quickest 100m breaststroker on the women’s side, clinching the win in a time of 1:07.34. That narrowly dipped under the World Aquatics ‘A’ cut of 1:07.35 needed for this summer’s World Championships.
I hope MA seriously consider to train with a better coach to realize his potential.
Honestly I’m more impressed with a 1:00.00 than a 59.75 100 breast just saying
If MA swims fast in season it’s because he’s always tapered. If he’s slow, he must be washed up. Gotta love the double standard applied. What if he’s beat down from weights?
I agree. Watched the livestream. He looked good on fly but didn’t have the legs on breaststroke 20 minutes later. It is obvious he is fatigued which may get better as he works through the jet lag.
I think the point is that his training style is supposed to make you swim fast all the time.
So either:
1. He’s abandoned his signature training style but not told anyone; or
2. His training style isn’t working.
He could also just not be as motivated right now, same as a lot of others at this point in the quad
Who are these other swimmers not motivated right now? All I see are fast times all over the world.
Right? We can’t get a break because every week someone is breaking a record. If this is lack of motivation…
MA swimming at Ft Lauderdale, Westmont, Acropolis, Canet, Barcelona, Monaco racing a lot of events is NOT my definition of lack of motivation. Also he seems very proud of his new Olympic circles tatoo.
If MA seriously isn’t motivated right now, with OTs a year out, he won’t make the Paris team.
Unless MA has drastically changed up his training with a ton more volume, these results are pretty concerning heading into trials. I thought a big part of the selling point for USRPT was that it allowed you to swim relatively fast all year round.
I don’t think it will happen, but I would not be shocked if MA misses the team entirely this summer.
50 free? And it’s not like we have a ton of guys who have been under a minute in the LCM 100 breast.
He did say he was lifting. Maybe the regimen is different this year. I’ll reserve judgement for trials
Exactly. Let’s apply the same standard to him as every other swimmer at this high of a level. Let’s see what he does when it counts
Well he just swam CR this morning in prelims 50 breast.
Andrew’s in-season times this year have been terrible, probably the worst in the last four years. Sad to say, but I don’t think he’s going to swim fast this summer, but we will see.
Despite the jet lag he swam 23.45 and 1:01 in the morning then 23.57 and 1:02 the fly breast events were back to back. He did fine.
You’re not wrong
The bigger story here is not MA’s 50 fly result but rather the 1:02 in the 100Breast. Yikes.