Apostolos Christou with 52.95 and Vangelis Makrygiannis with 53.24 secured the third and eighth positions respectively in the 100m backstroke preliminaries, earning their spots in tonight’s (28/7, 22:32) semifinals.
Papastamos out of the 400m individual medley final
Despite an excellent first 200m, Apostolos Papastamos ran out of steam and failed to qualify for the 400m individual medley final at the “Paris 2024” Olympic Games. The Greek swimmer was third halfway through the first preliminary heat, but then lost ground and finished eighth with a time of 4:15.32, placing 15th overall. Although theoretically within his capabilities, it was difficult for him to match his national record time (4:10.83) from last month in Belgrade in a morning race.
Frenchman Leon Marchand, the clear favorite for the gold medal, was the fastest in the preliminaries with 4:08.30, followed by Briton Max Litchfield (4:09.51) and Japanese Daiya Seto (4:10.92). It should be noted that Tokyo Olympic champion, American Chase Kalisz, missed the final, finishing in 11th place.
