Sprinters of the pool win gold for Greece
By Christopher Galakoutis Friday, March 21 2008 8:38:29 PM





Greece, a country better known for its speedsters of the athletics track, celebrated two gold medals today at the European swimming championships in Eindhoven, Netherlands.

Ioannis Drymonakos set a new European record of 1:54.16 in the 200 butterfly, smashing his PR by over two seconds. He powered up the home straight to finish ahead of 2005 world champion Pawel Korzeniowski of Poland (1:54.38) after overtaking Nikolay Skvortsov on the last lap, with the Russian fading to third place.


The prior European record was 1:54.62, set by France’s Franck Esposito on April 17, 2002.

The 23-year-old Drymonakos’ powerful display propelled him to 2nd on the all-time list behind only Michael Phelps of the US, who set a world record of 1:52.09 at last year’s world championship in Melbourne.

Ioannis Drymonakos



Drymonakos said, “I can't grasp it at present. I have never imagined that I could win the European title, and even less that I would set a new European record. I think I'm the first Greek swimmer ever to achieve that feat.”

Former world champion Aris Grigoriadis earned the second title of the night for Greece less than a half-hour later, when in the men's 50 backstroke he stopped the clock in 25.13, edging Flori Lang of Switzerland by just 0.05.

Grigoriadis, the 2005 world champion, was second in the 100 backstroke this past Wednesday.

"I had a bad start, but for that it is a very good time," Grigoriadis said.

The 100 freestyle heats were overshadowed by the absence of Milorad Cavic. The American-born Serb swimmer was kicked out of the championships Friday for wearing a T-shirt proclaiming "Kosovo is Serbia" during the gold medal presentation for his 50m butterfly victory on Wednesday night.

The decision sparked outrage in Belgrade, with Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica urging the European swimming league to reverse the ban.

"I appeal to all reasonable and responsible in the swimming federation to enable Cavic to compete, " Kostunica said in a statement to the news agency Beta. "The whole country is proud of Milorad Cavic and his result."

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Banned Serb

Wasn't the 50m backstroke a record too? I'm quite sure I read it was.