With 39 Greek entries and reasonable hopes that this year’s harvest could be more than the six medals our country won last year in Budapest, it starts today at Rome and in “Foro Italico” 36th European Aquatics Championship (11-21/8). Of these, 19 in classical swimming, 12 in artistic swimming, six in open water and three in diving. Anna Duntunaki in the 100m butterfly but also in the 50m is a medal contender, Apostolos Christou with the best time in the 50m backstroke and second in the 100m is hoping for something more than the three consecutive bronze medals he won at 100m, while Evangelia Plataniotis in competitive swimming, Christian Golomeev and the men’s 4x100m freestyle team claim a place on the podium. Andreas Vasios has a difficult task ahead of him in the 200m medley.

The premiere includes seven Greek numbers in swimming and two in artistic, where the national team will compete for a medal in the afternoon (16:00) in team technique. Earlier, Evangelia Plataniotis will play in the singles qualifier. Details: 10.00 (50m butterfly A, qualification): Golomeev, Bilas, Papadopoulos, Stamou. 10.28 (400m mixed individual A, qualification): Yurtzidis. 10.58 (100m breaststroke A, qualification): Tomoglu, Aspougalis.

In total, Greece has won 39 medals (6 gold, 11 silver and 22 bronze) in the previous sports, 23 in swimming, 8 in artistic and 8 in offshore swimming.