Greece’s best ever showing at the European Championships
Greece’s national track and field team, a rising force in international athletics over recent years, bolstered its presence with an impressive six-medal tally – four gold and two bronze – at the European Championships in Munich which ended on Sunday. The performance, Greece’s best ever at a European Championship event and two years ahead of the Athens Olympics, handed the side fifth place overall. Above Greece, first-placed Russia dominated the event with 24 medals, seven of those gold, and was followed by the UK, Spain and France, whose silver medal – along with the four gold and two bronze medals which matched Greece’s tally – narrowly gave the country fourth place. Greece’s next best effort came at the European Championships four years ago in Budapest where athletes picked up a total of three medals for 14th place overall. Greece had also won two medals before a home crowd at the newly built Olympic Stadium, which was inaugurated with the 1982 European Championships. Sprinting sensation Costas Kenteris, who added a European Championship gold medal in the men’s 200 meters to his collection of gold brought back from the Sydney Olympics in 2000 and last year’s World Championships in Edmonton, proved too strong for his European competitors. After cruising through the qualifying heats, Kenteris hit high gear in the event’s final to leave rivals in his dust. The 29-year-old athlete, who is clearly preparing to defend his Olympic title before a home crowd in Athens, set a new national record with a scintillating time of 19.85 seconds. Though a 0.53-second gap still separates him from American Michael Johnson’s seemingly invincible world record of 19.32, set at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996, perhaps Kenteris should start considering a new world record of his own. The thought did slip off Kenteris’s tongue during his post-competition remarks in Munich, while the sprinter expressed his hope of defending his Olympic title in Athens. Johnson, who was in Munich and met with Kenteris on the event’s sidelines, apparently told the Greek sprinter that his record was not unbreakable. Fellow sprinter Katerina Thanou, an athlete who can always be counted on to do well at big events, raked in Greece’s first gold medal in Munich with a time of 11.10 in the women’s 100 meters. Another reliable performer, Mirela Manjani won a gold in the women’s javelin with a 67.47-meter throw. She has figured prominently in recent years with a gold medal at the World Championships in Seville in 1999, and silver medals at Edmonton’s World Championships last year and the Sydney Olympics. A newcomer to Greece’s medal parade of late, 32-year-old discus thrower Katerina Voggoli won a gold in the women’s event with a 64.31-meter performance. Teammate Tasoula Kelesidou, who won a silver at the Sydney Olympics and last year’s World Championships, won a bronze with 63.92 meters. In another pleasant surprise for Greek track and field, Alexandros Papadimitriou won a bronze in the men’s hammer throw with 80.21 meters, almost one meter under the 81.17 throw that earned Hungary’s Adrian Annus the gold medal. «I can now look at my opponents without being awed by them,» the 29-year-old Papadimitriou said. These medalists, however, were not all Greece had to offer: Another 18 athletes in individual events plus two relay teams were present in event finals. Some were there because no qualifiers were held: Vassilis Zabelis was 20th in the marathon, Theodoros Stamatopoulos was 21st in the 20-kilometer walk – Lefteris Thanopoulos did not finish in the same event – Chryssa Iakovou was 13th in the women’s 10,000 meters, in a new world record of 32 minutes, 18.62 seconds; Popi Ouzouni was 12th (last) in the women’s shot put; Argyro Strataki was 16th in the heptathlon, and Athanassia Tsoumeleka and Athena Papayianni were ninth and 11th, respectively, in the 20-kilometer walk. Tsoumeleka set a new Greek record of one hour, 31 minutes and 25 seconds. Among those who qualified for the finals, Angeliki Tsiolakoudi narrowly missed a bronze medal in the javelin throw to complement Manjani’s gold when two of her competitors, Finland’s Mikaela Ingberg and veteran Russian Tatiana Shikolenko, surpassed her in the final throw. Tsiolakoudi still set a personal best of 63.14 meters. In the men’s 400-meter hurdles, Pericles Iakovakis also chased a bronze medal, but a mistake in clearing the next to last hurdle meant he ended in fifth place, in 49.07 seconds. In the men’s 100 meters, Giorgos Theodoridis proved too nervous for the occasion and was disqualified after two false starts. Aris Gavelas could do no better than seventh, and last, place. In the women’s long jump, 22-year-old Stella Pilatou somewhat made up for Niki Xanthou’s failure to qualify by taking sixth place. In the triple jump, where previous European and world champions Olga Vasdeki and Voula Tsiamita have long been sidelined with injuries, Pigi Devetzi ended in seventh place. There was also a double presence in the women’s hammer throw final, with Alexandra Papageorgiou finishing seventh, with a new Greek record of 66.49 meters, and Evdokia Tsamoglou in 12th place. One athlete missing from this event, and an almost certain medalist had he taken part, was javelin thrower Costas Gatsioudis. He is due, instead, to undergo surgery this week for an injured shoulder. Rehabilitation is expected to take about three months.
