Anna Ntountounaki Improves Greek Record in 50 Butterfly
Anna Ntountounaki improved her Greek record in the women’s 50 butterfly on a fast weekend of swimming for her.
She got the record in the final event of the Faros-Elena Sairi 2025 at the Municipal Indoor Swimming Pool of Alexandroupolis. Ntountounaki went 25.63 in the 50 fly, chipping two hundredths of a second off the record she had set at the 2021 European Championships. She finished fourth at that event, at a meet in which the native of Crete became the European champion in the women’s 100 fly.
At 29, Ntountounaki is still swimming fast. Her time in the 50 fly is under the A cut for the 2025 World Aquatics Championships in Singapore. So too is the 58.07 she used to win the 100 fly on Saturday at the meet. She holds the national record in that event at 57.25 from the Olympics in Tokyo. Ntountounaki also won the women’s 50 free in 25.20, a Worlds B cut.
Ntountounaki was named the women’s swimmer of the meet, an honor that on the men’s side went to Apostolos Christou. He started the meet by going 24.73 in the men’s 50 backstroke, within four tenths of his Greek record and a Worlds A cut. Christou also hit the A cut in the 100 back by winning in 53.39. He was victorious in the 50 free in 22.26, a B cut that is nearer the auto standard of 22.05 than the consideration time.
Christou did not enter the 200 back, the event in which he won a historic silver medal for the Greek program at the Paris Olympics last summer.
The third Paris Olympian at the meet, Apostolos Papastamos, wasn’t quite hitting the same times as the other two relative to his past. But he still picked up wins in both IMs and was second to Christou in the 100 back, albeit five seconds behind him.
Despoina Pyrili hit a B cut in winning the women’s 50 back in 28.73. She was also second to Ntountounaki in the 50 free in 26.11. Evangelos Efraim Ntoumas clocked a low B cut in winning the men’s 100 breaststroke in 1:01.48. His time in the 50 breast of 28.29 was right on the consideration time.
