Tasos Korakakis is preparing the new… Anna

Tasos Korakakis is known to the general public as the father and coach of Anna Korakakis. The older ones also know him from his shooting championship.

But now, with the time counting down to the Olympic Games in Paris, we also learned about him as… dad of the qualifiers. Of the three qualifiers that our country has won, so far, two have the coaching… stamp of the old champion. Anna Korakakis and Christina Moschi have already booked “tickets” for France and Tasos Korakakis is living a new dream.

“When I was an athlete, I never dreamed of becoming a coach, and I wouldn’t have gotten into it if one of my kids didn’t start shooting. In 2004 I didn’t qualify because I had a lower back problem and in 2012 I missed qualifying by 0.1mm. Participating in the Olympic Games was a dream that did not come true and now, through my gymnasts, I got the joy to a multiple degree“, Tasos Korakakis told kathimerini.gr.

21-year-old Christina Moschi is originally from Pieria and the 4th place she took in the 10 m air pistol, in the recent European championship, qualified her. “Christina is an athlete of our club and has been training with us for about 1.5 years. Since she is studying medicine in Larissa, I give her a training program for there and we train together when she goes up to Drama. It is something very difficult and that gives more value to what he achieved. She is an extremely talented athlete, but we don’t train together as much as we should. If we did, it would be on another level“, the coach told us.

And Christina Moschi may not be training as much as she should with her coach, but Tasos Korakakis has the potential for his athletes to win a gold medal and an Olympic qualification even with advice over the phone. “For personal reasons I was unable to travel to Tallinn, Estonia, so Anna and Christina competed with coaching over the phone. Anna was named European champion and Christina came 4th“, he tells us, laughing.

“Strange Feeling”

Tasos Korakakis is Anna’s dad and her coach. Now he also trains Christina who competes in the same weapon as Anna. What are the feelings of the coach when there is also the paternal interest? “It’s a strange feeling. On the one hand I have Anna who, apart from being my athlete, is also my child and on the other hand I have a new talented athlete. The second is a big challenge for a coach. Anyway, it’s a little weird“, he told us, smiling.

A few days ago, Anna Korakaki added another medal to her rich collection. Our Olympic champion has secured qualification for Paris and is working on it. “There were some personal issues that held us back a bit, but Anna has the drive and when she gets into the final she will do well. In our sport there are 10-15 female athletes who are at a similar level. Every time our goal is to qualify for the final and from there the differences are so small that we can’t say anything“, emphasized the experienced coach.

Tasos Korakakis, when he was an athlete, did not dream of becoming a coach. In Paris, however, two athletes are expected to lead to the Olympic dream. Perhaps there is a piece missing from this dream for now, the qualification of Dionysis Korakakis. “Surely that would be the complete dream. For men, the qualifiers are very difficult. There are many high level athletes and Dionysis is not yet at that level. Of course, we will compete and claim the best“, he underlined.

Next commitments include the Baku world cup in Mayin June the European Games and in August the world championship, which will also be held in Baku.

Source: Daily