Apostolos Papastamos Breaks Own Greek National Record En Route To European Title In 4:10.83

By Anya Pelshaw on SwimSwam

2024 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS

June 17-23, 2024
LCM (50 meters)
Belgrade, Serbia
Prelims: 9:30 am local time
Finals: 5:30 pm local time
Psych Sheets 
Men’s Storylines
Women’s Storylines
Live Results
Day 1 Prelims Live Recap
Day 1 Finals Live Recap

MEN’S 400 IM – FINAL

World Record: 4:02.50 – Leon Marchand, France (2023)
European Record: 4:02.50 – Leon Marchand, France (2023)
Championship Record: 4:09.59 – Laszlo Cseh, Hungary (2008)

Top 8:

Apostolos Papastamos (GRE) – 4:10.83
Balazs Hollo (HUN) – 4:11.51
Gabor Zombori (HUN) – 4:11.70
Daniil Giourtzidis (GRE) – 4:16.64
Marius Toscan (SUI) – 4:17.51
Heorhii Lukashev (UKR) – 4:21.20
Juraj Barcot (CRO) – 4:21.52
Richard Nagy (SVK) – 4:22.14

Two Greek National Records went down on night one of the 2024 European Championships. The first came from Apostolos Papastamos who swam to a European Title in a 4:10.83. That broke his own record of a 4:11.93 that he set back in 2019 which also was the World Junior Record at the time.

Split Comparison:

2024 Euros

50
26.8
27.01

100
30.99
30.48

150
32.68
32.2

200
31.76
31.85

250
33.95
34.88

300
35.32
35.7

350
29.77
30

400
29.55
29.81

4:10.83
4:11.93

The biggest difference was his breaststroke leg where she split about a second faster today. He also was slightly faster coming home on freestyle with more left in the tank.

Despite being the National Record holder in the event, Papastamos took a break from the event at the 2024 World Championships this past year as he only swam in prelims of the 200 fly. Since his previous best time, he swam a 4:12.50 in the event for 14th at the Tokyo Olympics, a 4:26.06 at 2022 Worlds, before swimming a 4:14.52 at 2023 Worlds.

His swim today also got him under the Olympic Qualifying time of a 4:12.50. He now sits at #12 in the World in the event so far this season.

His swim from tonight also marked the first time he has won a senior level Europen Title. He swept the IM events at the 2019 European Junior Chamionships notably swimming a 4:15.18 in the 400 IM.

MEN’S 50 BUTTERFLY – SEMIFINALS

World Record: 22.27 – Andrii Govorov, Ukraine (2018)
European Record: 22.27 – Andrii Govorov, Ukraine (2018)
Championship Record: 22.48 – Andrii Govorov, Ukraine (2018)

Top 8:

Stergios Marios Bilas (GRE) – 23.06
Meiron Amir Cheruti (ISR) – 23.20
Szebasztian Szabo (HUN) – 23.23
Tie: Simon Bucher (AUT) / Vladyslav Bukhov (UKR) – 23.29
–
Daniel Gracik (CZE) – 23.31
Nikola Miljenic (CRO) – 23.34
Denis-Laurean Popescu (ROU) – 23.45

Also breaking a National Record was Stergios Marios Bilas who dropped 0.10 off of his previous record of a 23.16 that he swam last year at the 2023 U23 European Championships. He is the top seed headed into tomorrow and will look for the European crown, despite the event not being in the Olympics.

Read the full story on SwimSwam: Apostolos Papastamos Breaks Own Greek National Record En Route To European Title In 4:10.83