Romania scoops athletics medals
GREEK Cypriot athletes competed in last week’s 23rd Balkan Indoor Athletics Championship in İstanbul which saw the Turkish national athletics team smash a world record and two others to take away 10 medals.
The tournament attracted 242 competitors from 35 countries and was held in the Turkish Athletics Federation Centre.
Star of the event was Emre Zafer Barnes, who smashed the world record in the men’s 60m with a scorching time of 6.63.
Meanwhile, representing South Cyprus, Amine Khadiri took gold in the 1,500m senior men’s race in 3:53.01 followed by Levent Ateş of Turkey who crossed the finishing line in 3:53.26. Christos Dimitriou, also from the South, came third in the 800m senior men’s category in 1:50.02, while in the 3,000m senior men’s category, Nikolas Fragkou of South Cyprus came fifth in 8:16.62.
In the senior men’s high jump, Konstantinos Baniotis of Greece was first with a leap of 12.22m, followed by Greek Cypriot Vasilios Konstantinou, who cleared 12.18m.
In the men’s pole vault, Ivan Horvat of Croatia came first with a 5.55m clearance, with Greek Cypriot Nikandros Stylianou second on 5.25m.
Meanwhile, Greek Cypriot Natalia Evangelidou came third in the women’s 1,500m in 4.25.80, with victory going to Serbian Amela Terzic in 4.17.64.
Romania topped the medals table with five medals apiece of each “colour”, followed by Turkey with three golds, five silvers and two bronzes, and Bulgaria third with three golds, three silvers and four bronzes. Greece was fourth with three medals of each “colour”.
“Cyprus” took five medals: one gold, two silvers and two bronzes.