Dimitrios Markos Sets Greek Record En Route to U23 European Title in 200 Free (1:46.65)

2023 LEN U23 SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Friday, August 11th – Sunday, August 13th
• Sport Ireland National Aquatic Centre, Dublin, Ireland
• LCM (50m)
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Dimitrios Markos broke the Greek record in the 200-meter freestyle en route to the U23 European title with a winning time of 1:46.65 on Friday night in Dublin, Ireland.

The 21-year-old shaved nearly three-tenths of a second off the previous Greek record of 1:46.94 set by Andreas Vazaios at last year’s Stockholm Open. Markos sat back in 7th place at the midway point of the race before making his move with sub-27 splits on the third and fourth lengths of the pool. The Tokyo 2021 Olympian took nearly half a second off his lifetime best of 1:47.12 from last year’s European Championships.

It’s the first Greek record in LCM for Markos, who previously held SCM national standards in the 200 free (1:45.06) and 800 free (7:48.84) from the 2021 European Championships. His time tonight would have only missed last month’s World Championships final by .59 seconds behind Kieran Smith‘s 1:46.06 in the semifinals.

200 Free Greek Records, Splits Comparison

The American duo of Patrick Sammon and Aaron Shackell were positioned 1-2 at the halfway mark, and Sammon maintained the lead through the final turn before he was overtaken by Markos.

MEN’S 200 FREESTYLE – FINAL

• World Record: 1:42.00, Paul Biedermann (GER) – 2009
• World Junior Record: 1:42.97, David Popovici (ROU) – 2022
• European Record: 1:42.00, Paul Biedermann (GER) – 2009
• European Junior Record: 1:42.97, David Popovici (ROU) – 2022

1. Dimitrios Markos (GRE), 1:46.65
2. Patrick Sammon (USA), 1:47.27
3. Aaron Shackell (USA), 1:47.35

Sammon held onto silver in 1:47.27, the second-fastest swim of his career behind his personal-best 1:46.83 from U.S. Nationals, while Shackell picked up bronze in 1:47.35, just six one-hundredths shy of his best time.

France’s Yann Le Goff (1:47.85) and Israel’s Eytan Ben Shitrit (1:48.01) were the European silver and bronze medalists, placing fourth and fifth overall respectively.