Greece is first in the general classification of the European Taekwondo Championship

Greece celebrated first place in the boys category and third place in the girls category at the European Taekwondo Championships in Belgrade, giving an image of the excellent work being done in the clubs nationwide.

At the finale of the event, our country celebrated two bronze medals, as well as a fifth place with Christos Bakalexis, Efthimios Bakalexis and Vassiliki Alexandridis respectively.

Three-day report: Two gold, five silver, three bronze medals, but also five fifth places. And now Greece has reached 60 medals since 2005, nine of which are gold.

Bakalexis and Iliadis found themselves on the podium of a major event for the second time. Iliadis, “silver” recently at the World Championships in Sarajevo, took third place at -176cm, while Bakalexis, “silver” last year at the European Children’s Championship in Malta, was ranked third at -172cm.

Both of our athletes were members of our National team, which was established by the Hellenic Taekwondo Federation after the second qualifying tournament held in OAKA and SEF.

Bakalexis, with three wins, reached the semi-finals. He prevailed in order of Azeru Aliyev, Azidov who competed with ETU and was No. 1 on the board, and the Croatian Teskera. In the match to enter the final, he was defeated 21-19, 16-12 by Turko Duzel, taking third place.

Iliadis, after passing “bye” in the round of 16, prevailed 2-1 against Ukrainian Lopotun and with the same score against Moldovan Navraciuk. In the semi-finals against Ismailov, who competed under the ETU flag, he was defeated 2-1, thus climbing to the third step of the winners’ podium.

Alexandridis at -176cm with a win in two races and ranked fifth.

The leader of the mission was Joseph Makrynakis, while the responsible coaches of the national team were Andreas Alifragkis, Antonios Antonakopoulos, Vasilios Charalambidis, Konstantinos Zinelis, Nikolaos Tzanakakis and Apostolos Iakovakis.