2025 ACROPOLIS SWIM OPEN
- Friday, May 2nd – Sunday, May 3rd
- Athens, Greece
- LCM (50m)
- SwimSwam Preview
- Meet Central
- Day 1 Recap
- Results
The 2025 Acropolis Swim Open entered day two 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 2 Highlights
23-year-old Dimitrios Markos produced a near-lifetime best en route to winning the men’s 200m freestyle.
The 2024 European Championships finalist touched in a result of 1:46.62 to beat the field by just under a second.
He opened in 52.86 and closed in 53.76 to get to the wall ahead of teammate Konstantinos Eglezakis who settled for silver in 1:47.57, while Turkish swimmer Ahmet Boylu rounded out the podium in 1:49.09.
Markos’s career-swiftest outing rests at the 1:46.46 notched in Belgrade last year, so he was only .16 outside of that mark en route to taking the title here.
Additionally, he dipped under the World Aquatics ‘A’ standard of 1:46.70 needed to qualify for this summer’s World Championships.
Olympic medallist Apostolos Christou was also in the water last night, taking on the men’s 50m backstroke.
28-year-old Christou stopped the clock at a speedy time of 24.75.
That registered the sole sub-25-second time of the field, as Turkey’s Mert Satir turned in 25.44 and Evangelos Makrygiannis nabbed 25.52 for bronze.
Christou has been as quick as 24.36 in his career, a result he put on the books when winning gold at the 2022 European Championships.
His time here ranks him 12th in the world this season and also qualified him for Singapore, clearing the ‘A’ cut of 25.11.
Already the women’s 50m fly winner here, 29-year-old Anna Ntountounaki doubled up with a victory in the 100m distance.
Ntountounaki struck gold in a rapid 57.44, splitting 27.00/30.44 in the process. The result checks in as the 3rd-best of her career, sitting only behind the 57.25 logged at the 2020 Olympic Games and the 57.37 from 2021 in Budapest.
Anna Ntountounaki‘s Top 5 LCM 100 Butterfly Performances
- 57.25, 2021
- 57.37, 2021
- 57.44, 2025
- 57.62, 2024
- 57.75, 2023 & 2021
Fellow Greek athlete Georgia Damasioti clinched silver in 57.99 for just her 2nd-ever foray under the 58-second barrier.
Amina Kajtaz of Bosnia & Herzegovina earned bronze in 58.96. 19-year-old World Championshps bronze medalist and University of Virginia commit Lana Pudar claimed 4th place.
The World Aquatics ‘A’ standard sits at 58.33, therefore, Ntountounaki and Damasioti both made the grade for Singapore.
A Greek national record went down in the women’s 200m IM, courtesy of Nikoleta Pavlopoulou.
The 24-year-old stopped the clock at a time of 2:15.23, overtaking the previous national standard of 2:16.17 she put on the books in 2019.
Additional Notes
- Germany’s Nicole Maier followed up her 100m freestyle victory from night one with a gold in the 200m free. She notched 1:59.69 to beat the pack by 2 seconds.
- Turkish Olympian Emre Sakci posted a time of 27.19 to take the men’s 50m breast just .01 ahead of countryman Nusrat Allahverdi‘s result of 57.20. Kazakhstan’s Aibat Myrzamuratov hit 28.05 as the bronze medalist.
Christou 52.51 in the 100 Back