The Greek swimmer Philippos Raptis performed very well in his first participation in the 1st World Deaf Youth Games, held in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
The Greek champion took part in a total of 3 events (200 and 400m freestyle, 100m backstroke) finishing in 4th place, but greatly improving his individual records and showing that the future belongs to him.
At the premiere of the swimming competitions on Wednesday (17/1), Filippos Raptis, in the final of the 400m. Youth freestyle, finished in 4th place, in a time of 4:41.17. His time is pretty close to the 4:40.70 he set last year at the World Deaf Swimming Championships, men’s and women’s, in Argentina. The first place was taken by the Polish Wojcik in 4:17.60, the silver medal was won by the Italian Bocanera in 4:27.10 and the podium was completed by another Pole, Wocikowski in 4:25.62.
On Friday (19/1) Filippos Raptis had a double participation in the 100m. backstroke and 200m. free.
In both events he again finished in 4th place, greatly improving his individual records. In the final of the 100m. backstroke, achieved a new individual record with 1:09.84 (morning preliminaries 1:12.25) and in the final of the 200m. freestyle he finished in 2:11.42, a time which is again a new individual record, with the Greek swimmer taking part in 4 races in a few hours, improving his individual records.
The federal coach of EOAK Charalambos Papanikolaou said he was equally pleased and proud of his athlete. The efforts of the Greek champion were closely watched by the president of EOAK Iosif Stavrakakis, who was present at the matches in Brazil. The Greek delegation returns tomorrow (Sunday, January 21).
The 1st World Deaf Youth Games were held for the first time in Brazil and include 6 sports: Athletics, Badminton, Basketball, Futsal, Swimming and Table Tennis, where a total of 16 countries participated, with 67 sportsmen and women, from 14 to 18 years old.
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