The 37th edition of the European Aquatics Championships drew to a close with Hungary flying high at the top of the medal table in Belgrade
The Hungarians left the Serbian capital with 10 golds among 27 medals following seven days of racing at the Sports and Recreational Center Milan Gale Muškatirović.
The final evening belonged to Greece as they enjoyed two 1-2 finishes to go second in the final standings with five golds among 17 trips to the podium.
A new 50m freestyle champion would be crowned in the absence of Ben Proud with world champion Vladyslav Bukhov among the field.
But it was Kristian Gkolomeev who qualified as top seed.
The Greek won bronze at the last two editions which followed silver at Glasgow 2018 but on Sunday he finally upgraded to gold in 21.72.
Victory was his by the narrowest of margins, 0.01 ahead of Sergio Marios Bilas who took silver from lane eight in 21.73 for a Greek 1-2.
Bukhov added European bronze to World gold in 21.85.
Gkolomeev said: “Very special. For me personally I have been chasing this medal a long time. Since 2012 I’ve had a lot of fourth places, I’ve won silver and had two bronzes so I am very happy with a gold medal and I am now focused on the Olympics.”
Of the Greek success, he said: “Everyone is swimming very, very fast. A lot of medals, a lot of national records. Yeah, as a team we are doing very well.”
Apostolos Christou won 100m backstroke silver at Roma 2022 which followed bronze in the previous three editions.
On Sunday he was 0.25 off the pace of world record-holder Thomas Ceccon at halfway before finally taking gold in 52.23 to complete the 50/100 double in Belgrade.
Evangelos Makrygiannis followed him home in 52.83 for another Greek 1-2 with Ksawery Masiuk of Poland taking bronze in 53.56.
Only Rio 2016 champion Ryan Murphy has gone quicker than Christou in 2024 and that by the narrowest of margins in 52.22 at the US trials.
Christou said: “It’s a great time and another gold for me. I am really happy with the result and it’s a good push for me through Paris.
“I’m really happy and excited because the Europeans wasn’t my main goal, my main goal is Paris.
“I wanted to be fast here, I achieved that and I have all the confidence for Paris.”
Christou completed the 50/100 double and was also joined on the podium by Makrygiannis in the one-length race where they claimed a 1-3 finish.
“It’s great,” he said. “It’s a medal record for us. It is a great motivation for us to be better in Paris and in general for Greek swimming.”
Dimitrios Markos of Greece won silver in 3:47.44 with Antonio Djakovic of Switzerland third in 4:47.62.
Before traveling to Belgrade, Greece had accumulated a total of 26 medals (5 gold, 5 silver, 16 bronze) with the record of six medals (1 gold, 5 bronze) held since the Debrecen event in 2012.
Now, the total number of medals won by Greece at European Championships has reached 43 (10 gold, 13 silver, 20 bronze)!
According to the announcement by the Hellenic Swimming Federation, our national swimming team will return from Belgrade tomorrow, Monday, June 24th, at 15:35 on flight A31103.
