Greece picked up two bronze medals on Thursday at the European Swimming Championship in Debrecen, Hungary, two days after the gold earned by Aris Grigoriadis.
Eighteen-year-old Panayiotis Samilidis, last year’s European junior champion, clocked a national record of 2 minutes and 9.72 seconds in the 200-meters breaststroke to finish third, 1.12 seconds behind the winner, Daniel Gyurta of Hungary.
His medal came as a surprise given that this was his first major championships, and after the first 100 meters he had actually been leading the race. Experienced Yiannis Drymonakos also finished third in the 200-meters butterfly with a time of 1:56.48, 53 seconds behind the winner, Laszlo Cseh, also from Hungary.