Last weekend 10-11 July 2021, the Greek U18 national championship took place in Volos in the region of Thessaly.
The championship took place in the “Panthessaliko Stadium”, built for the 2004 Athens Olympics, for football events; a large and modern stadium with many facilities.
It was the occasion to honor the memory of Vasilis Sevastis, president and general secretary of the Greek Athletics Federation (Segas) who died last April due to Covid-19.
We had the honor of meeting him during a conference a few years ago in Greece and we join to friends of Greece in remembering their president passed away.
10.000m track walk U18 boys
On the evening of Saturday 10 July at 21:25, with a fairly hot temperature (around 30° C), five athletes were at the start.
In the lead from start to finish the victory went to Georgios Kritoulis (GRE) who finished with a time of 54:30.13 for him little more than a training since on 13.5.2021 he obtained in Chios (GRE) his personal best on distance with a time of 46: 42.07
Second place to Dimitrios Konidaris (GRE) in 54:49.81
Third place to Elissaios Bardakis (GRE) in 56:27.89
5.000m walk on track U18 girls
The event of the U18 girls took place on the morning of Sunday 11 July at 8:15am, with 20 girls at the start.
For just over 10 laps (about 4,200m) two athletes fought shoulder to shoulder for the victory: Sevastiani Aslanidu (GRE) and Chrisanthi Arvanitakou (GRE).
Shortly after, Sevastiani Aslanidu (GRE) forced her pace and went on to win in 24:58.08. The young athlete (2006) was the first time she took part in the track test and she achieved a good improvement over the distance on the road. This season, in fact, she had already competed twice on the 5km road in Megara (GRE) with the best result of 26:57.
Second place to Chrisanthi Arvanitakou (GRE) in 25:15.77 which represents the new personal best (previous of 25:43.0h obtained in Larisa, GRE on 14.3.2020)
Born in 2004, she will compete this weekend in Tallin (EST) in the U20 European Championships on 10.000m track walk where she has a personal best of 53:51.07 obtained in Thessaloniki (GRE) on 3.7.2021
Third place to Sofia Ioanna Valionti (GRE) in 25:50:79
(News and photos by Zioe Gkini - GRE)