Everything is ready for the U15 European Wrestling Championship in Loutraki

From Wednesday May 15 to Saturday May 19, the European Wrestling Championship for under-15s in all styles will be held in Loutraki.

Having preceded the corresponding Grappling championship the previous weekend, the area hosts and will host 1,000 athletes, coaches and attendants at the “Georgios Galanopoulos” indoor gym.

The Mayor of Loutraki, Perachora and Agios Theodoros, Giorgos Gionis, the deputy mayor for sports, Sakis Papathanasiou, the Olympian and President of the technical committee, Konstantinos Thanos, spoke at the press conference about the great event that highlights the region and offers to society through sports tourism. and the federal coaches, Amiran Kardanov and Charilaos Chondronasios.

What they said in detail:

The Mayor of Loutraki, Perachora and Agios Theodoros Giorgos Gionis: “It is a great honor to welcome you to the press conference, which marks the start of the two world wrestling events that we have the pleasure of hosting in the Municipality of Loutraki – Perachora – Agios Theodoros and the Indoor Gymnasium C Galanopoulos.

I would like to warmly thank the Hellenic Wrestling Federation, the Olympic champion and member of the technical committee, Mr. Costa Thanou, as well as the World Wrestling Federation for their cooperation, trust and support in this important event.

This is a major sports event that confirms once again that the Municipality of Loutraki – Perachora – Agios Theodoros is a welcoming sports destination with many possibilities as it has state-of-the-art sports facilities and offers the ideal conditions for holding high-level sports events.

The first Championship held in the past few days with the participation of young athletes from all over Europe was a unique experience for all of us.

Loutraki hosted 150 teenage wrestlers and proved its ability to organize and host such large sporting events. And now, we are gearing up for the second Championship, the U15 European Championship 2024, where over 700 young wrestlers from over 35 countries will gather for a week full of sport and healthy competition.

In closing, I would like to thank all of you for your presence today, to welcome the missions and to wish you success and a pleasant stay in our city”.

The deputy mayor for sports of Loutraki, Perachora and Agioi Theodoros, Sakis Papathanasiou, said: “I think the Mayor said everything as he should have said it. Loutraki hosts the two major Wrestling championships. I would especially like to thank the Olympian and president of the Committee, Mr. Thanos, the Hellenic Wrestling Federation and the World Wrestling Federation for their participation. For our country, we continue and will continue to host very large events. At the moment, over 850 athletes will be in “Galanopoulos” throughout this eight-day event.

So, we invite people to be present at the stadium. To give the children the opportunity to do the best for themselves and in closing I would like to wish good luck to all the athletes and thank you very much once again to Mr. Thanos for choosing our place and the Hellenic Wrestling Federation for the cooperation ».

The Olympian and President of the technical committee, Konstantinos Thanos, noted: “I must say that the Municipality of Loutraki Perachora with this administration and with my friend now, Mayor George Gionis, is the reason why big sports events are coming – not in Loutraki – but in Greece. We would not have been able to implement this event, as well as the previous ones we have done, if the Municipality of Perachora Loutraki, Mayor Gionis and all his associates, the entire Board of Directors, did not exist to support them.

They actually support them because they believe in what we believe. On the values ​​of sport first of all and that sport is the medium that attracts so many people. It supports tourism in our country. It supports the economy through sports tourism. We have an excellent partnership and we will continue this partnership. Imagine that all the people both in the past and now, who came to Loutraki have been amazed. We are constantly asked for information at every event we do here in the Loutraki area.

It is a beautiful area. We have record attendance. This year at this age, under 15 years, we expected to have around 600 athletes from 30 countries and we have exceeded with styles the 800 athletes. Together with the coaches and attendants we will exceed 1,000 visitors from abroad. This is a huge number for this age group.

At the Veterans event that we held last year, many of them are their coaches and pass on their experience from visiting Loutraki, from the hospitality, from the hotels, from the accommodations, from the kindness of the people, from the support of the Municipality, from the same the Mayor, who announces the matches, is very friendly with them, talks to them.

The result is that they have the pleasant mood of constantly visiting more and more people in Greece, but especially in the region. I say it again, this could not be implemented under any circumstances, because the World Federation can assign us events, but our financial possibilities are also limited without the support of the Municipality.

For this, I want to thank from the bottom of my heart my friend Giorgos Gionis, the Mayor and all his partners who have contributed to the implementation of so many events and even as much as we can, we will bring other events in cooperation. From then on, the games are a celebration at this age. To the little kids. Those who have time to come on Wednesday at 17:00 to watch the opening ceremony and the games.”

The Olympic champion and Federal coach in freestyle wrestling, Amiran Kardanov, said: “I would also like to thank Mr. Mayor for the hospitality. We have been coming to Loutraki for many years for preparations, especially at the Sport Camp. I would also like to thank Mr. Karavoulis. I believe we will continue the cooperation in the future. The National U15 team had a tournament two weeks ago. We have completed the team and now we are preparing for the European. I think the kids will be fine. I wish them success.”

Kostas Thanos, taking the floor, spoke about the federal coach: “Amiran is always sparing in the promises of distinctions, but in the distinctions he is generous with the work he does as a federal coach. It is a great honor for a two-time Olympian to be a partner of the Federation and to train and give his knowledge to the younger children.”

The Federal coach in Greco-Roman and women’s wrestling, Charilaos Chondronasios, emphasized: “I would also like, first of all, to thank both the municipal authority of Loutraki, Mr. Mayor and his colleagues for the hospitality and the follow-up initiative to organize sports events of this level in Loutraki, in collaboration with the Hellenic Wrestling Federation which has a long tradition with the city. Kostas Thanos himself has served many times as an athlete.

At Sport Camp, the collaboration is timeless and I imagine that there will be continuity because it is very functional. Also, I would like to thank my colleagues, Mr. Nikos Papageorgiou and Ms. Sofia Kampanaris, who are at the Sport Camp facilities and are preparing. The preparations for the Greco-Roman wrestling and the girls’ wrestling are in the final stretch. They have given their best in order for our athletes to achieve the best possible results.

The women’s team is a new and “fresh” group of girls who will have the opportunity to be put to a strong test at this European Championship. We believe there will be some very good performances, maybe even a medal. As far as the Greco-Roman style is concerned, there is a greater dynamic. The guys we have are 13 athletes in each style. They are children we know personally. They have at least 7 to 8 years in national and international level competitions and are ready for this type of competition. They have done things even before they came here to Loutraki. Preparations in clubs, participation in international tournaments.

There are athletes with distinctions in the previous Balkaniad, athletes who have recently distinguished themselves in international tournaments with a very strong character and there is generally a spirit of optimism among both the coaches and the athletes themselves. We hope that this spirit cannot be disturbed and from Friday when they enter the battle and the Hellenic-Roman athletes will be ready to offer extra joy to what the Hellenic Federation and the Municipality of Loutraki have prepared with great effort”.

In closing, Kostas Thanos took the floor and underlined: “These games are being implemented without the Greek state having given a single euro. They are implemented with self-financing and have the support of the Municipality of Loutraki. The General Secretariat of Sports and the Ministry have not subsidized us for this major event. That’s why I said that we couldn’t implement this event”.