Greece has had a successful showing at the 2009 Mediterranean games in Pescara, Italy, with a haul of 62 medals, including 18 gold medals. Greece was fifth in the standings as the games head into the final evening (Melbourne time Monday, July 5).

Judo champion Ioulieta Boukouvala added a gold Mediterranean Games gold medal to her rich collection, as the games drew to a close.

The Greek judoka defeated four opponents on the way to claiming the top spot on the podium in the -57 kilogram category.

In gymnastics Vassiliki Millousi won gold in the balance beam with 14,725 points, while Evgenia Zafiraki was fourth in the floor exercise.

The men’s basketball team faced Croatia in the final after beating Turkey 82-79 in the semifinal.

Unfortunately, they had to settle for the silver medal after losing the final 60-72.

Athanasia Perra had a world-class effort at triple-jump to win the event at the Mediterranean Games on Thursday.

The athlete who has been in the shadow of Olympian Piyi Devetzi for most of her career, reached 14.62 metres in Pescara for a new personal record and the second best performance in the world this year. Devetzi missed out on the Games due to a minor injury, allowing Perra to enter the Games belatedly.

Greece won another gold medal in athletics courtesy of Sava Lika who won the javelin with a throw 60.97 m. in her last effort.

Gymnastics gave two medals to Greece on Wednesday as Lefteris Cosmidis won the floor exercise and Evgenia Zafiraki was third in the vault.

The gold medal of Nicole Kyriakopoulou in the Mediterranean Games’ pole vault was one of the highlights for Greek athletics in Pescara.

Kyriakopoulou topped the event on the first day of the athletics programme with a jump at 4.50 metres, with Cyprus’s Marianna Zacharadi in second with 4.45 m.

Dimitris Tsiamis won silver in the triple-jump reaching 16.98 m., emulating the success of Spyros Lembesis who finished second in javelin with 78.66 m., a personal best.

In swimming Aris Grigoriadis won silver while breaking the national record in 100 metres backstroke with a swim of 54.00 seconds.

Aspasia Petradaki finished third in the same distance, also clocking a new national record (1.02.48).