With Christos Papadopoulos emerging as the face of the day, the action began in the 2024 Men’s and Women’s Handball World Championship. The 18-year-old giant came one breath away from the gold medal, but made history as he became the youngest Greek to climb to the second step of the world.
The U18 World Champion entered the senior category with ambitions and showed that not only does he have nothing to envy from the men, but he will soon become No.1 in the 105 kg category.
He may have started with a loss in his first match, but then he derailed those he found in his path and managed to find himself in the final, leaving out the big name of the category from the Greek side, Ilias Batsinila. In the final, he found himself with a disadvantage against the American Jack Tseverha. In the first final he took a huge victory and brought the claim for the gold medal in the balance, however in the final match he was defeated in the details and found himself on the second step of the podium.
From then on, Dimitris Filikidis, with a very good course and great performance, managed at the age of 43 to get the bronze medal and be on the winner’s podium of the Loutraki 2024 World Championship.
24-year-old Konstantinos Stathakis also won a bronze medal. In the heavy category, that of +105 kg, the Greek champion found the strength and momentum to climb to third place in the world.
In total, in the Seniors of the World Handball Championship Loutraki 2024, Greece was represented in the left-handed competitions by 21 athletes, most of whom had a very good performance and significant placings.
Greek entries in detail:
63 kg
Yannis Panchenko 8th place
Christos Panaretos 12th place
70 kilos
Christos Aslanidis 17th place
78 kilos
Dimitris Filikidis 3rd place Bronze medal
Argyris Dertilis 8th place
86 kilos
Panagiotis Goussis 7th place
Athanasios Alexandris 14th position
Alexios Athanasiadis 19th place
Nikos Tsavaris 23rd place
95 kilos
Konstantinos Antoniadis 12th place
Konstantinos Petridis 22nd place
Vassilis Petrou 19th place
105 kg
Christos Papadopoulos 1st place gold medal
Ilias Batsinilas 4th place
Spyros Chalastaras 13th place
Konstantinos Kaitalidis 14th place
Konstantinos Giannakakos 16th place
Nikos Zeugolis 17th place
+105 kg
Konstantinos Stathakis 3rd place Bronze medal
Sotiris Sakademis 13th place
Women’s
63 kg
Maria Malakozi 4th place
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