94th NATIONAL GREEK CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Friday, May 16th – Monday, May 19th
- Thessaloniki, Greece
- LCM (50m)
- Results
The 2025 National Greek Championships kicked off today in Thessaloniki with swimmers vying for the opportunity to represent the nation at this summer’s World Championships.
Veteran Apostolos Christou claimed his 12th gold medal and 34th overall across all of his Greek Championships appearances as he topped the men’s 100m backstroke podium this evening.
28-year-old Christou stopped the clock at a time of 52.55, beating the pack by nearly 2 seconds.
Behind him was Evangelos Makrygiannis who touched in 54.35 followed by Apostolos Siskos who rounded out the podium in 54.83.
As for Christou, his 52.55 easily cleared the World Aquatics ‘A’ standard of 53.94 needed to add the event to his Singapore lineup.
Post-race, the Olympic silver medallist in the 200m back told the Greek Swimming Federation, “I wanted to go even faster. But the sign is positive as I am consistently under 53. The level of the competitions is higher every year.”
Christou’s outing was just a hair off the 52.51 he notched at the Acropolis Open earlier this month to rank 6th in the world on the season.
The men’s 200m IM saw Apostolos Papastamos come painstakingly short of the World Championships ‘A’ standard en route to gold.
Papastamos clinched the top spot in a time of 1:59.08, falling just .03 shy of the 1:59.05 benchmark. He beat the field in the sole time under the 2:01 barrier, registering a new personal best in the process.
Entering this competition, Papastamos’ career-quickest rested at the 1:59.62 put on the books for bronze at the 2019 World Junior Championships. That means he just raced his fastest time in nearly 6 years.
Additional Notes
- The women’s 200m IM event saw its national record bite the dust at the hands of Artemis Vasilaki. Vasilaki grabbed the gold in 2:13.91, overtaking the previous Greek standard of 2:15.23 Nikoletta Pavlopoulou established just earlier this month at the Acropolis Open. Pavlopoulou was indeed in tonight’s race, beating that previous mark with a silver medal-worthy time of 2:14.75.
- Kalia Antoniou of Cyprus turned in a time of 25.31 to snag gold in the women’s 50m free, just .01 ahead of Anna Ntountounaki, who settled for silver in 25.31. Albian swimmer Nikol Merizaj rounded out the podium in 25.66.
- The men’s 50m free saw Stergios-Marios Bilas get to the wall first in 22.37 to beat the field by nearly half a second. He was quicker at the Acropolis Open, hitting 22.16 for gold at that prior competition.
