Greek athletes came mighty close to winning a medal at the European Indoor Athletics Championship in Paris on Saturday but were denied in the end despite some impressive performances.
In the men’s high jump Costas Baniotis and Dimitris Hondrokoukis registered new personal bests to finish fourth and fifth respectively.
Baniotis cleared 2.32 metres (his personal best had been 2.30 m.), with the silver and bronze going to athletes clearing 2.34 m. Hondrokoukis, in his first major championships, went over 2.29 metres.
“It was a tremendous event with great competition and I was really happy to see Dimitris have such a good performance,” said Baniotis. “We were here fighting for Greece and it would have been great had we both managed to get on the podium,” he added.
“My aim had been to advance to the final. Then I just wanted to enjoy the event, although I never expected I would make 2.29 m.,” stated Hondrokoukis.
Costas Philippidis finished fifth in the pole vault, but took a risk to get onto the podium.
The Volos athlete went over 5.61 metres and tried once at 5.71 m. and twice at 5.76 m. but without success; had he made it, he would have got a medal.
“I am very satisfied with myself today, I took a risk in order to get a medal but it did not pay off. I knew that in order to get something out of it I would have to break the national record” said Philippidis. Last month he broke his own national record going over 5.71 m.
In the women’s triple jump Athanasia Perra finished seventh with her best effort at 14.01 m, just like in Friday’s qualifying.
Nicole Kyriakopoulou negotiated successfully the qualifying of pole vault clearing 4.55 m. and equalling her own national record. The final is on Sunday.
In the 60 metres dash, Georgia Kokloni got as far as the semifinal, while Angelos Angelakis could not go past the first round. Eleni Kafourou was eliminated from the final of the long jump measuring no more than 5.75 m.
source: SPORTINGREECE
