National record for Drymonakos
Not only did Yiannis Drymonakos become the sole Greek swimmer to reach an indoor swimming final in the FINA World Championships on July 31, but he also broke the national record twice in the 400 meter individual medley to finish fifth.
The Ethnikos swimmer clocked 4 minutes and 15.01 seconds in qualifying, and fared even better in the final with a time of 4:14.62 for Greece’s best performance in the indoor swimming events of the championship, which concluded on Sunday.
He repeated his success from 2007 in Melbourne, where he had also finished fifth, and was also the best European swimmer in the final, dominated by US super star Ryan Lochte.
On the medals table, Greece finished 10th, which was unexpectedly high even for the most optimistic fans. This was thanks to the two gold medals by Spyros Yianniotis in the 10-km open-water swim and the women’s national team in water polo, the silver by Yianniotis in the 5-km and the bronze by Marianna Lymperta in the women’s 10-km.
Also on Sunday, the women’s water polo team returned to Greece in a moving atmosphere, with all players shedding tears of joy as they were sported their gold medals.
They were received by the President of the Hellenic Olympic Committee Spyros Kapralos and several officials, athletes and coaches of the sport, although there was no one representing the government.
“We want to dedicate this medals to all Greeks, in these hard moments our country is going through,» said player Stavroula Antonakou.
