Olympic Games: Apostolos Christou qualified for the final of the 200 meter backstroke – 2024-07-31 20:39:49

Distressed by the loss of the medal in the 100m. backstroke for just two hundredths of a second, Apostolos Christou had declared immediately after the final that he would retire from the 200m. When he calmed down and thought about it again, he decided not to miss the opportunity to “fall” in another event at the Paris Olympics, even if in theory he didn’t have much chance of distinction. Tonight, the 28-year-old champion has the right to feel fully justified for his final selection, since he became the second Greek swimmer (after Spyros Gianniotis at the Athens Olympics) to participate in a second final, and even in the same event.

The athlete of Panagiotis Velentzas set an individual record in the semi-finals of the event with 1:56.33, took overall fourth place and tomorrow night (1/8, 21:38) he will be at the start of the final, where anything can happen. Besides, the times in the 200m. backstroke this year are moving at moderate levels and the forecasts are risky.

The 19-year-old Apostolos Siskos did not manage to come close to his record (1:55.42) and with 1:57.77 he ranked 14th and was disqualified. However, his year was successful, with the silver medal at the European Championships in Belgrade and sixth place at the World Championships in Doha, and he will surely have other… Olympic opportunities in the future.

The favorite of the competition, the Hungarian 2023 world champion Hubert Kos, was the only one to “descend” in the semi-finals – narrowly – in 1:56, recording a performance of 1:55.96. They were followed by the Swiss Roman Mityukov with 1:56.05 and the South African Peter Ketze with 1:56.09, while the exact same time as Christou (1:56.33) was achieved by the German 400m Olympic champion. free, Lucas Mertens. The American Keaton Jones (1:56.39), the French Meuin Tomac (1:56.43) and the Spanish Hugo Gonzalez (1:56.52) also made it to the final. The American Ryan Murphy, who was “gold” in Rio and silver in Tokyo, the Italian Thomas Ceccon, who was the winner in the 100m, were left out of the final. (but he’s not as good at 200m), but also the Frenchman Yoan Edouil-Brouard, European champion in 2022.