Greece had a strong presence in the Balkan Championships at the Panthessaliko Stadium in Volos, with pole vaulter Emmanouil Karalis stealing the show with a competition-record jump to win the gold.

Karalis secured top spot with a successful jump of 5.92m, breaking the previous record of 5.70m, and he came extremely close to breaking his own personal record with an attempt at 6.11m.

The pole vaulter strived to break the all-time Greek record in pole vault and surpass his own personal best of 6.05m, but luck was not on his side as he just missed out on clearing the 6.11m height.

Behind Karalis was Ioannis Rizos, who cleared 5.65m.

Nikolaos Andrikopoulos had his best performance of the year in the triple jump, recording 16.21m to win the silver medal, with only Romania’s Razvan Greku beating him at 16.46m.

19-year-old Yiannis Gkartsios finished in sixth with 15.84m.

In the 5,000 meters, Ntenisa Balla fought hard to keep up with Bahar Yildirim, but her effort proved futile as the Turk finished with a time of 16:22.19. Balla settled for second (16:37.84), while Dafni Lavasa finished fourth in 16:55.93.

The great effort of Angelos Andreoglou and Aris Peristeris in the decathlon was rewarded with a gold and a silver medal. In the 1,500m, the last event of their two-day test under high temperatures (especially in the morning hours), at the Panthessaliko in Volos, they finished in 4:24.98 and 4:58.68 and reached 7,903 and 7,454 points respectively.

Andreoglou, who defended his title, achieved the second-best performance of his career (just behind his 7,926 from last year’s Balkan Games in Izmir).

Dimitris Tsitsos stepped up in Ioannis Kyriazis’ absence due to injury with the Javelin thrower taking out the gold with a winning throw of 78.30m.

Georgios Christakakos, the other Greek in the final, finished fifth with 68.71m.

Koraini Kyriakopoulou also made a great effort in the 1,500 meters, finishing second with a time of 4:11.03, having been bested only by Turkey’s Dilek Kocak and her gold-winning run of 4:09.80.

18-year-old Ioulianna Roussou passed the finish line in eighth with a time of 4:25.32.

In the very tough high jump competition, Tatiana Gkousin came fourth with 1.87m and Panagiota Dosi fifth with 1.85m. In first was the favourite, Serbian Angelina Topic with 1.93m.

In the Men’s 3,000m steeplechase, Turkey’s Abdullah Tugluk won with a time of 8:37.84. Greeks Filippos Siomos Gkizas and Nestoras Kolios were fifth and sixth respectively with 9:15.64 and 9:30.39.

Polyniki Emmanouilidou was one of Greece’s standout performers, having been part of the winning team in the 4x100m relay on the first day of the championships, and then winning the gold in the 200m sprint.

Emmanouilidou finished in 23.01 seconds, with Cypriot Olivia Fotopoulou just behind in 23.06, while the bronze medal was won by Dimitra Tsoukala with a time of 23.16, making it a Greek Cypriot podium.

Young shot putter Maria Rafailidou stepped up massively as she won her first major international medal with a silver-winning throw of 16.28m, beaten only by Ukrainian Olga Golodna’s 16.51m throw.

Maria Magkoulia finished fourth with 15.47.

In the men’s 200 m, Sotiris Gkaragkanis and Vasilis Myrianthopoulos just missed out on the podium as they recorded a time of 20.85. First came Azerbaijani Alham Nagiyev with a time of 20.70.

Romanian Alina Rotaru-Kottmann came out on top in the women’s long jump with 6.81m, just ahead of Cypriot Filippa Fotopoulou with 6.65m. Greece’s Natalia Besi finished fifth with 6.47m while Adriana Gkogka was right behind her with 6.46m.

Turkey’s Abdurahman Gendikioglu took out the 3000m final with a time of 8:11.38. On the Greek side, Andreas Georgiou came fifth with 8:16.54 and Orfeas Ioannou came sixth with 8:17.96.

Anastasia Ntragomirova delighted the locals in the Heptathlon with a gold-winning performance that saw her reach 6,163 points, breaking the U23 national record for the third time in five weeks and setting the second-best record by a Greek woman, behind only Roula Strataki’s 6,235 points.

Her performances in detail:

-100m hurdles: 14.44

-Height: 1.79

-Shot: 15.94

-200 m: 25.36

-Long jump: 6.42

-Jape: 7.61

-800m: 2:28.79.

At 33, Stella Tzikanoula was second overall with 5,238, while Anastasia Baloumi finished out of competition with 5,010 points accumulated at the time.

In the U20 category, Thetida-Filippa Garantzogianni emerged as the Balkan winner with 5,213 points, very close to her best performance and the national record.

Dimitrios Pavlidis managed to take out silver in the discus with a throw of 60.82m, losing only to Romanian Alin Firfirica, who scored 63.15. Kostas Bouzakis was seventh with 55.33.

In the 800 m, Croatian Marino Bloudek broke a 51-year-old record with a time of 1:45.55 in the fast series. Christoforos Koutlis ran close to his record (1:48.17) with a time of 1:48.24 he took sixth place, while Ilias Argyris was 11th overall with 1:52.20.

Hammer thrower Stamatia Scarvelis opened the Greek gold medal account on the second day of the Balkan Championships at the Panthessaliko Stadium with the best shot of her career at 71.95m.

Scarvelis came very close to beating the national record of 72.10, held by Stella Papadopoulou, with her performance bringing her even closer to securing a ticket to the World Championships in Tokyo.

Stavroula Kosmidou came in sixth with 64.60.

Anastasios Iliopoulos finished sixth overall in the 110m hurdles with a time of 14.06, with Christos-Panagiotis Roumtsios close behind in eighth with 14.09. The event was won by Ukrainian Dmytro Bahinskyi with a time of 13.64.

In the 100m hurdles, Sofia Iosifidou came sixth with a time of 13.41 and Sofia Kamperidou came seventh with 13.45. Austrian Karin Strametz took the gold with a time of 13.00

An exciting finale in the last event of the U18 decathlon, the 1500m, with Greek champion Stavros Taskoudis shattering his record with a time of 4:59.60, finishing with a super effort, barely keeping his balance, just 2.18 seconds behind Ukrainian Ilya Valovoi, and defending the 17-point lead he had gained after nine events.

Taskoudis closed the race with 6,409 points accumulated compared to the Ukrainian’s 6,405.

Earlier in the U18 heptathlon, Olivia Chryssou, thanks to her excellent 800m, where the timer read 2:31.05, reached the bronze medal. With her appearance in the last event, the 16-year-old athlete reached 4,312 points. The winner was Ukrainian Oleksandra Sivtsova with 4,696.

In the U20 decathlon, Giorgos Peppas counterattacked on the second day and won the silver medal with 6,441 points. The Balkan winner was Israeli Ido Einbinder with 6,810.