Double Greek Triumph in the World Sailing Championship

Double triumph for Greek sails in Argentina! Iasonas Panagopoulos and Marianna Makri, both sailors of the Kalamaki Nautical Club, climbed the podium at the Optimist World Championship that ended yesterday in Mar del Plata, Argentina, with the 16-year-old taking the gold medal and the 14-year-old taking the silver!

This is an unrepeatable success for Greece as never before in a similar world championship had two sailors on the first and second step of the podium for boys and girls! The only medal Greece had to show until the Argentina event was the bronze won in 2014, again in the same country by Dimitris Papadimitriou.

Iasonas Panagopoulos confirmed his dominance in the category as after 3 consecutive gold European medals he added to his trophy case the only medal he was missing, that of the world. He won the gold after a strong battle with the Brazilian Arthur Buck. In a championship in which 164 boys participated, Panagopoulos showed incredible stability in all 11 races that took place (15, 8, 1, 8, 1, 1, 4. 15, 3, 2, 4 his placings) and celebrated with 47 penalty points the conquest of the first place by closing his presence in the category in the best way for his age Optimist.

In second place was Buck (56 bp) and on Tuesday the Spanish Mateo Carbonel (69 bp). “I won the gold medal in the last two races with second and fourth place. These races are always “tough” but I pushed away any negative thoughts, did my best and always kept in mind where my opponents were. I took advantage of every opportunity that was given to me and that’s how I won. What I want now is to see my family!” the young sailor of the Naval Club of Kalamaki commented from Argentina.

Among the girls, in a total of 61 entries, Marianna Makri won the silver medal with 126 penalty points in 11 races (10, 27, 5, 5, 3, 3, 48, 39, 5, 8, 21). She missed out on the gold medal in the 11th final race with Spain’s Marta Mancito taking 6th and Greece 21st. Mancito wore the gold on her chest with 115b. p., while Nina Marusic climbed to the third step of the podium with 137 penalty points. In the remaining Greek appearances, Konstantina Sinani was 13th (302 b.p.), Despina Theodorakopoulou 15th (315 b.p.) and Stefanos Samaras 87th (271 b.p.). The architect of the double Greek success in Argentina was the federal coach and coach of the Kalamaki Naval Club, Antonis Drosopoulos. The Greek delegation is expected to arrive in Eleftherios Venizelos on Monday 16 December at 16.25.