Weightlifters join battle for medals
ANTALYA – The national weightlifting team goes into battle today with two medal contenders at the 81st European Championships in this Turkish resort city. Leonidas Sabanis and Natasha Tsakiri, who will compete in the men’s 62-kilogram and the women’s 63-kilogram categories, respectively, will both be striving for medal performances. A third Greek athlete, Anna Palasidou, who will make her debut in major international competition, leads Greece into battle early today, in the 58-kilogram category. «We’ve come with a team consisting of athletes who have brought numerous medals to our country, and will keep doing so in the future,» remarked Christos Iakovou, the Greek squad’s coach. «We’re trying to remold the team with veteran athletes and youngsters, so that we can continue renewing the squad,» he added. Though he never talks medals in public, the Greek team’s coach spoke overtly about Tsakiri’s chances today, while also listing Sabanis as a possible medal winner. «This season, she’s done the best training ever and will step onto the pedestal, hopefully at its highest point,» Iakovou asserted. «Sabanis is always in there with a chance for a medal, which I believe will also be the case here,» he added. The national team stood to gain from newly introduced qualification procedures for the Olympics, Iakovou noted. As the host nation, Greece qualifies automatically for the 2004 Athens Olympics. «I think this helps us. Not because we would have been unable to earn our place as a full-sized team through competition, but because athletes won’t be stressed, which means that we will be better prepared for 2004,» explained Iakovou.
