My choice of the year's best athlete

All of a sudden I realised that October was the proper moment for the publication of my list of the year's best athletes. Last year's November publication was due to the fact that the World Championships took place unusually late, in October. In fact I asked myself if World Athletics are going to go through their usual selection of the year's best given the unique situation forced upon us by the epidemic. But, whatever they decide, I felt that I had to go through my yearly report and choose the athletes I appreciated most during the 2020 season. 

For men's top three the choice was easy. Three athletes really distinguished themselves this year. Foremost is A. Duplantis. 

He started with two superb world records arriving at 6.18 m, indoors (but, for vertical jumps, indoor world records do count as absolute ones). And then in order to silence those who were thinking that he had not yet surpassed Bubka he did jump 6.15 m outdoors becoming the indisputable ruler of pole vault. 

J. Cheptegei began the season with a road 5 km world record in February. But the serious things came later when he erased Bekele's name from the world record tablets with two superb performances over 5000 m (12:35.36) and 10000 m (26:11.00). Had he managed to win the World Championship of half-Marathon (he finished 4th) he would have shared the first place with Duplantis. As things stand he is in second place.

The third place goes to K. Warholm who has chased the 400 m hurdles world record ending up at less than a tenth of a second with his excellent 46.87 s. What would have occurred had he not stumbled over the last hurdle is still a matter of debate. The record over 300 m hurdles (33.78 s), obtained early in the season, is a consolation. 

The remaining 7 athletes of the top-ten are usually given without any special order. This time I will make an exception and give J. Vetter the 4th place. With his 97.76 m javelin throw he showed us that the 24-years old record of Zelezny is not unattainable. 

R. Grouser has been going after the world record in shot put but he finally had to settle for an 22.91 m.

T. Cheruiyot was unbeaten over the 1500 m this year obtaining a 3:28.45 in the Monaco Herculis meeting in an epic battle with J. Ingebrigtsen where the latter established a European record with 3:28.68. Both have won their place in the top ten.

D. Stahl dominated the discus throw, winning 18 out of 20 competitions, with a year's best of 71.37 m. 

H.F. Zango has won his place in the top-ten for his superb African indoor record in triple jump with 17.77 m at just 15 cm from his coach's (T. Tamgho) world record of 17.92 m.

The last place goes to N. Lyles for his 19.76 s over 200 m together with D. Brazier for his world leading 1:43.15 over 800 m.

As always there is also a "rising star" category, focusing on young, typically U20 (but I do not always apply this rule), athletes. 

The first place is a no-brainer. By winning the World Half-Marathon championships, J. Kiplimo established himself as one of the best long-distance runners. He would have won a place in the men's top ten had I not reserved him for the rising star crown.

The second place goes to  M. Volkov (son of 1980 olympic silver medalist K. Volkov) who at 15 years of age jumped a U16 world record of 5.50 m in pole vault.

Finally, for third place, we have S. Zhoya who improved the U20 60 m hurdles world record with 7.34 s. 

For the women's top the things were less clear. I finally opted for a first place to S. Hassan who improved the 1 hour world record with 18930 m and made a serious attempt at the 10000 m record of Ayana, finally settling, due also to the disastrous meteorological conditions, for "just" a European one with 29:36.67.

The second place goes to P. Jepchirchir who repeated her 2016 victory by winning the 2020 edition of the half-Marathon World Championship, this time accompanied by a (women's only race) world record 1:05:16.

L. Gidey, who broke the 5000 m world record with 14:06.62 occupies the third place in my list of the year's best athletes.

There is no particular order from here onwards. E. Thompson and S. Miller were the best sprinters this year. The first with 10.85 s over 100 m and a brief appearance in the european Diamond League circuits, while the second did not cross the Atlantic, favouring the US circuits, where she ran a 21.98 s 200 m.

F. Kipyegon has been chasing Masterkova's 1000 m record during all summer. In the end she had to settle for an African record of 2:29.15, just 17/100 s off the World one.

M. Lasitskene jumped only during the winter season but managed a world leading 2.05 m in high jump confirming her position at the top of the discipline. Let us hope that the ANA program is not scrapped and that she'll be allowed to participate in the Tokyo Olympics next summer (provided they are held, of course, which is not at all obvious at this point in time).

Y. Rojas improved the indoor triple jump world record with 15.43 m and then she went on to a so-so summer season. If only she had profited from this season's lack of competitions in order to improve her technique ...

I really like this photo of Allman

V. Allman surprised everybody with a US discus record of 70.15 m . With this throw she became the 25th member of the event’s still-exclusive 70-metre club. Allman, trained in dancing, believes that having a deep connection with body movement through dance has been “incredibly beneficial” during her discus career.

I had to choose the tenth athlete among a slew of women who have had a great season: B. Kosgei (winner of the London Marathon and second at the half-Marathon championships), M. Mihambo (who jumped 7.03 m outdoors and 7.07 indoors in the long jump), K. Klosterhalfen (who, with  14:30.79, established a European record over 5000 m indoor), L. Muir (who won all her races over 1500 m, and had a world best of 3:57.40), H. Obiri, undefeated over 3000 m and 5000 m, the two dutch hurdlers, N. Visser (and her world-leading 12.68 s over 100 m hurdles, winning 13 of her 14 races) and F. Bol (who won all her six races, and registered a world leading 53.79 over 400 m hurdles) and A. Sidorova (who jumped a world leading 4.95 m, indoors, in pole vault).  

Finally I settled for the heptathlete I. Dadic. She has the world-leading performance in heptathlon with 6419 points but, what is really impressive, she completed a one-hour heptathlon in July obtaining 6235 points. Her performances are impressive: 13.64 s, 1.80 m, 14.84 m, 24.32 s, 5.76 m, 47.60 m and 2:19.10. Were it not for the slightly below par long jump (where she lost probably 150 points) she would have done almost equally well in the one-hour compared to the two-days event.

For the women's rising star the first place goes to Y. Machuchikh, thanks to her U20 2.02 (indoor) record obtained in February. Unfortunately the remaining season was not on par with this performance since she managed "only" 2.00 m outdoors. So my recommendation is less enthusiastic than the last year's one.

I have reserved the second place to a greek athlete, E. Tzengko. She threw a 63.96 m in the javelin throw improving the U20 world record. Unfortunately due to some technicality (the anti-doping test was performed the following morning) her record cannot be homologated. 

In the third place we have L. Iapichino, the daughter of F. May and G. Iapichino, who, by jumping 6.80 m this summer, showed that she is following in her mother's footsteps.

G. Stark improved the indoor U20 60 m hurdles world record with 7.91 s. A. Shukh (she is 21, but as I said I do not abide WA's rule of under 20) is, at last, starting to show her real potential as heptathlete with a 6386 performance this summer. If she manages to improve her basic speed there is no limit to what she can do. S. Richardson, at 20 years of age, is constantly improving, with 10.95 and 22.00 s over 100 and 200 m. All of them are rising stars.

When (if) World Athletics publish their top-ten list I will definitely report on that, comparing their list to mine.

Competition in the times of the epidemic: a personal experience

I do not write about myself in this blog. In fact, apart from some of the very first posts where I wrote about how I came to be interested in athletics, there is one mention of the sport I practice in the post on mixed relays. There are of course several blogs of mine dealing with my sport but "rethinking" is a blog totally devoted to athletics (where, of course, I present my personal, totally subjective, view of things). This post will be an exception to the general rule. Here I intend to draw upon my personal experience as athlete and present my view on the disastrous, panicky, and responsibility-avoiding handling of the epidemic by the various governments.

But before going into this let me give some background. I am a finswimmer. For those of you who do not know this sport I suggest you google the term finswimming. There are even semi-decent wikipedia articles on this. I am training and swimming at competition level, participating in the masters's age groups competitions. This year the world championships were planned for June. They got postponed to October and transformed into european championships due to the existing travel restrictions.

The author (middle) on the podium of this year's European Masters'

First came the lockdown. All of a sudden one could go out just one hour per day in order to exercise. I am reading the accounts of several top-class athletes who had to improvise training in their backyards or in the street. Now, why on earth an open-air training ground couldn't be accessible to a certain number of athletes is a mystery to me. My assessment of the situation can  be summarised in a single word, panic. The various governments, caught unprepared without even a reserve of the today omnipresent masks, decided to enforce isolation on everybody. And when they realised that this was ruining the economy (was that so difficult to predict?) they lifted the lockdown but kept the training grounds off-limits.

For swimmers the situation was even worse since we need a pool to swim in. In France the swimming pools were inaccessible from March to September. The way I found in order to keep in shape was by doing indoor biking and occasionally going for brisk walks. Running is out of the question unfortunately: after 40 years of finswimming my ankles cannot take much beating. When summer arrived I left for Greece and started training in the sea. I came back to France just when the swimming-pools were opening so that I could do my final preparation for the Europeans. It was a close call since just upon my return from the championship I learned that the swimming pools were again "temporarily" closed. This is something I have trouble understanding. How can closing swimming-pools help mitigate the spreading of the epidemic? Swimming-pools are among the safest places as far as the sars-cov-2 virus is concerned. With a minimum of preventive measures (which are already in place) people can swim (and train) safely. It all boils down to deniability. Governments like to be able to claim that they cannot be held accountable since they have taken these and those measures.

But it is not enough to be able to train. In order to participate in the championships one must be able to travel. And there the nightmare starts. The restrictions imposed by the various governments change every week. I can now understand why there have been so few american athletes present during the Diamond League circuit of competitions. And for professional athletes this is a disaster since they need the money they get from competing in order to live. 

However what is even more important (and applies equally to professional athletes and to amateurs like us) is that one cannot be an athlete without competition. Competition is not about beating the others (although this is also part of the game). Competition is about surpassing oneself. And this is something that all athletes crave for. I cannot describe to you the elation I felt when I found myself in the championship swimming-pool.

This year's competitions were "spectator-free". As far as us finswimmers are concerned this is not a big deal. Our competitions do not attract big crowds. So the fact that it was only us competitors in the pool did not make any difference. (But the fact that you had to wear a mask while in the stands and during the award ceremonies was not the nicest of experiences). I don't know if the elite athletes are feeling the absence of spectators. Compete in a stadium in the presence of tens of thousands people must be a unique feeling.

I really like this photo of Hassan

And now the season is over. Its conclusion was a superb european record by S. Hassan in the 10000 m with 29:36.67 beating at last Radcliffe's 2002 record (E. Abeylegesse's 29:56.34 was expunged for a doping violation). As chance would have it, Radcliffe missed the 30 min barrier by a mere second due to the heavy rain she had to run under and Hassan had to convert her assault at Ayana's world record to a more modest objective due to the same pesky rain.

The night of the world records

I was looking forward to this event ever since Cheptegei broke the 5000 m world record. What I did not expect was that what was planned was a double assault, with Gidey taking a shot at the long-standing Dibaba's 5000 m record.

M. Gidey is more of a 10000 m specialist. She was second in last year's  World's over that distance. Her previous best over the shorter distance was "just" 14:23.14 from 2018. So I was somewhat sceptical when the attempt was announced. However I was to be proven overly cautious. Paced superbly by none other than the steeplechase world champion and record holder B. Chepkoech, she passed at 3000 m in 8:31.85 right on the planned pace. And from there onwards she continued even increasing slightly her rhythm drawing on her last reserves on the final stretch and finishing with a amazing 14:06.62.

It was a unique moment when Chepkoech rushed to hug Gidey, literally lifting her off her feet. 

When A. Ayana ran that "out of this world" 29:17.45 during the Rio, 2016, Olympics, I pointed out that that performance was equivalent to a sub-14 min 5 km.

It looked quite possible since at the time Ayana had a 14:12.59 personal best in that distance. (And then Ayana went on to loose the olympic 5000 m, and essentially disappear after 2017). But now that I have seen Gidey running in such a regular and efficient way in Valencia, I am again optimistic about a sub-14 min 5000 m record in a not-too-distant future.

Speaking of regularity, I think that the best innovation in track events is the Wavelight pacing system. Not only does it ensure a correct pacing all the way up to the finish line, something impossible with human pacers, it is also of great usefulness to the spectators. It was funny, over the last lap, to see Gidey turn her head to see how far ahead of the lights, moving at the world record pace, she was. 

J. Cheptegei is the new name in middle-to-long distance running. When he announced that he was going to tackle the 10000 m record I did a fast calculation and it resulted that all he had to do is run a constant 63 s lap. Well, this is easier said than done, but if anybody could do it that was Cheptegei. In his enterprise he was helped by a superb pacer, N. Kimeli, a last year's World's finalist in the 5000 m with PBs of 12:51.79 and 26:58.97 in the 5000 and 10000 m respectively. Kimeli led Cheptegei to a 13:07.73 first 5000 m (and, surprisingly, he did not drop out of the race, as almost all pacers do, but carried on, finishing in 27:12.98). Cheptegei necessitated a few laps before finding his own pace, but once he reached the seventh kilometre it was clear that the record was within his grasp.

His final time, 26:11.00, is even better than the 63 s per lap I talked about in the previous paragraph. There has even been some pre-race speculation that Cheptegei could attack the 26-min barrier. My own feeling was that it was a tad too early for this. But now that he has mastered the sub 63 s pace, a 62.5 s one (corresponding to a round 26 min) is not unrealistic. 

In the meantime Cheptegei has another objective: the World Athletics Half Marathon Championships, which will take place on October 17th. It might turn out that 10 days are not enough for Cheptegei to recover from his herculean effort, but one never knows. In any case I will keep an eye open. 

PS. Well, 10 days were not enough. Cheptegei could manage just a 4th place, in a race won by his compatriot, young and talented, J. Kiplimo.

The blog is seven years old

 Last year, at the end of my anniversary post I was giving an appointment to my readers for this October, saying "once we have survived the Tokyo Olympics". Who in their right minds could have imagined what would happen just a few months later? The epidemic arrived and nothing was the same anymore. The year that had started incredibly well, went all of a sudden sour. All major competitions were adjourned, beginning with the Olympics. Now we have to wait till next July for them and it is already made clear that there will be no further postponement: if the Games are not held in 2021 they will not be held at all. In which case Tokyo will have the unique "privilege" of having seen the Games programmed for it cancelled twice.

In this topsy-turvy situation World Athletics tried to save what could be salvaged. Some competitions were organised both in the Diamond League series and the Continental Tour ones. There were even some nice performances, foremost among which are the pole vault jump of Duplantis and the 5000 m world record of Cheptegei. But, on the whole, the year was rather underwhelming, failing to create the excitement associated with the major championships.

The blog fared well, managing over a thousand views per month since March (with the exception of April which was smack in the middle of the lockdown period). But of course the statistics are rendered meaningless by the October 2019 spike of 24k visits. I have never managed to understand where those visits were coming from, but their presence makes the analysis of the numbers nigh impossible.

In the absence of major competitions I managed to keep the blog alive thanks to more technical and sometimes historical articles. If you are new to the blog and wonder what to read, I would recommend the January 1st post on "Eleven wretched women, or how fake news almost killed women athletics". It tells the story  of the first olympic 800 m for women, during the Amsterdam, 1928, Olympics and how the ambient misogyny tried to stifle women's athletics. 

It is clear that the coming months will be no picnic, but will the blog continue? Definitely yes, despite the difficulties. I am not through yet with rethinking athletics.

An interview with K. Tsagkarakis, first part

If you follow this blog you have certainly come across the article on the flying steeple-chaser, G. Papavasileiou, (who, sadly, passed away recently). In that article I tell the story of how did I come to meet Kostas Tsagkarakis. When researching for my "flying steeple-chaser" article, I discovered the existence of a book he had written, I met him and we ended up becoming close friends. For months (years?) now I have been pestering him for an interview. I managed to convince him and, in one of my recent travels to Greece, we sat down and had a lengthy discussion. Below I give a (non-verbatim) transcription of the interview.

The author with K. Tsagkarakis in front of the Panathenaic Stadium

BG. How did you come to love athletics?

KT. I started running already since I was a child. In our school we had a very big schoolyard and during breaks we were running all the time. Our schoolteacher was organising competitions every year and there I realised that I was not good at speed events. So I started interesting myself in longer events. Even if I was not the best in the latter I was, at least, competitive. So I've been running since I was 9 years old.

Growing up things gradually became more serious. I could train in the stadium of the physical education academy, which was very close to my house. One year I participated in a popular competition organised by the main athletic journal of the time, "Athlitiki Icho". It was a 5 km race starting at the Panathenaic stadium. For my first participation I arrived at 53rd position among 400 participants. The following year I finished 8th. Various club representatives were at the arrival looking for promising new talents. Myself, I had been working, during the off-school hours, at a printing shop held by the Misailides brothers. That was the family of Ilias Misailides, a well-known champion, specialist of 400 m, belonging to the club of Panionios. Naturally I ended up belonging to the club of Panionios. During my high-school years I participated in a competition organised by the municipality of Dafni. I ran 2.5 km and finished first. The following year I convinced a friend of mine to join me. That was a bad idea because he finished first and I had to content myself with second place. After finishing high-school I stopped training at Panionios (more on Panionios later).

A parenthesis here

Our printing shop was responsible for all things related to athletic events. So I could always manage to obtain an invitation for the competitions held in the Panathenaic Stadium.

BG. And I would add two personal remarks at this point. 

First, I was not missing a single competition in the Panathenaic stadium since the end of the 50s. So, there a big chance that we may have been seated next to each other with Kostas, in particular when G. Papavasileiou was running the steeples.

Second, I have trained for two-three seasons at the beginning of the 60s in the Panionios stadium. So, I may have bumped into Kostas there, but properly meeting him had to wait for 50 more years.

Back to the interview

KT. Before proceeding, a funny story on steeple chase. As you know I was an admirer of our great champion G. Papavasileiou. One day I decided to show to a friend of mine how does one jump the river. In my training in Panionios, under Misailides and Depastas, we had also been doing hurdle exercises. So I was confident that I could show the proper technique of jumping over the river. There was no water in the river, not enough lighting, and I had a short, 10 m, run-up. So I ended up falling head-first in the hole and I had to be reanimated. I spent three months recovering and that ended my steeple ambitions.

After high school I had to decide what to do professionally and I obtained a position in the National Bank. I spent a few years in various provinces (where I continued running) and then was transferred to Athens. Upon arriving to Athens my first priority became to finish my studies: I was studying law in the University of Athens. After obtaining my diploma I had to do my military service. During my service I was running with my combat boots, having heard that Zatopek was training with these heavy shoes so as to feel lighter when wearing his spikes.

The 1987 Marathon race. K.T. on the right together with athletes of

the club of runners for health

The Marathon saga

During the years I was frequenting the Panathenaic Stadium I became aware of the Marathon race. At that time the classical race was held on April 6th, the Olympic Day. Many big names among foreign runners were participating in this competition. I remember having seen the famous B. Abebe running the classical marathon (me too). I was impressed but also envious. My great desire was to be able to run a marathon, be it once. 

Once I had finished with the military service, that was in August 75, I started running from the very next day. And I have never stopped. I am joking saying that I have yet to arrive at my destination. So I decided to participate in the marathon, but the race was reserved to 'official' athletes. The fact that I belonged to Panionios came in handy at this point. I contacted my ex-coach and told him I wished to run the marathon. He was somewhat astonished and he asked me whether I was running 300-400 km per month. What could I answer, when my quota was around 100-120. I mumbled something and he agreed to let me participate.

That was my first bad experience. At that time the conditions were far from favourable. Once the champions had passed for the remaining runners the ones who could finish in 3, 3 and a half hours there was nothing. No water was left in the intermediate stations and moreover the weather was hot despite the season (April). At the 36 km there was in the middle of the road a separation with grass and which was being watered. I could not resist I started drinking without a second thought but as I lowered myself I got a severe cramp and could not even stand. So I could only drop out of the race and waited for the security vehicle to pick me up. That was my first negative experience from the marathon: I arrived at the stadium on a stretcher.

In October another marathon race was organised, this time open to everybody. I was more experienced and knew that I had to drink more. What we were doing along the road is to ask for water at the various coffee shops. Sometimes there were peasants, working the field, who were offering us water. I finished my first marathon in 5 hours.

The first organisations

I started forming a group together with other runners and participating in popular running events. The group started growing and we were participating under the label "the athletes from A. Kosmas", from the name fo the stadium where we were training. We were training without any supervision inventing our own program. Our motto, was "run a marathon, you can do it", we had even a banner with this. (Now that I think about this, I am not convinced that it was a good advice: a marathon needs serious preparation, training, medical supervision. But at that time we were naive). In order to encourage people along this direction we decided to organise an open competition over 20 km, in May 1978. That was a first for Greece. We asked the national athletics federation to help us by appointing judges but they only laughed at us, hinting that we were running in order to stay slim. In 1981 we decided to create our own association the "club of running for health" (of Athens). Upon creating the club I assumed the presidency (for one  year mandate). We were organising the 20 km competition and later a 10 km. The starting and arrival was in A. Kosmas. Later we started organising, in May, a competition in Ymittos, over 2, 4 and 8 km.

Running the 20 km together with a vision-impaired athlete

We started helping the peripheral municipalities in organising competitions. I liked offering my services and was good at organising. I was keeping notes and a written record after the race. Our club or runners for health got imitators. Several clubs of `health runners' were created all over Greece. 

Back to the Marathon

I was pursuing my marathon dream. At that time there was still a US military base in Athens and they organised a marathon. It was again in spring and again around noontime. Unfortunately two days before the race I had a small accident with my scooter where I hurt my leg. Since I was really painful I decided to take an analgesic pill before the marathon start. I took a double dose without reading the contraindications. Had I read them I would have seen that the medicine produced somnolence. At some point I realised that I was running half-asleep and so I decided to drop out of the race. That was the second time I abandoned a race. In fact there was a third one. That was again because of dehydration, due to lack of experience. I was so thirsty that I asked a passing truck driver to give me something to drink. Unfortunately the fruit juice he offered me was too cold and I immediately vomited it. Those were the only three times I dis not finish a marathon. So up to now I have completed 42 marathons, the last one in 2019. I adore the classical marathon and when I am running the classical race this gives me strength to finish it although it's one of the most difficult. I am afraid that if I tried another marathon I would not be able to finish it. Of course having run so often I know the classical route by  heart. 

K. Tsagkarakis, for once in a non-Marathon race, in Distomo (2014)

Organising Marathons

At one point I decided that I had to do something in order to improve the organisation of the classical marathon. Our first action was at the start of a marathon, just when the television crew was filming, to show a banner protesting for the bad organisation of the classical race. We missed participating in the marathon but we could at least voice our discontent. We were collecting data on the participation of foreigners but also their critiques. I started writing to the greek athletics federation. The member of the federation responsible for the marathon was heeding my complains but his answer was that whatever he proposed was ignored by the higher-ups. In the end he suggested that I present personally my ideas at the council. That was in 1998-99 and from that time I never stopped. At the beginning I met quite some hostility but fortunately the councils of the federations are not permanent. What did also help was the fact that the federation realised that the classical marathon could become a major event and even help financially.

Although I haven't participated in races abroad I knew, having discussed with the foreigners who were coming for the classical marathon, I had a good idea on how were marathons organised abroad. Since I had a voice in the council I could try to implement some simple changes. Sometimes it took years even for something simple but in the end it was done. In the beginning one had to pay for the commemorative medal. For me that was against the athletic spirit. Still to tell the truth, at that time you did not have to pay anything for your participation. Unfortunately this is no more so and that was a decision taken contrary to my recommendations.

Fortunately our reactions had a result and in 1983 was organised the first marathon in memory of G. Lambrakis (the well-known politician, physician, track and field athlete, and associate-professor in the University of Athens assassinated by far-right extremists in 1963. He was a prominent anti-war activist and marched alone the Marathon – Athens Peace Rally in 1963). The marathon race, at that time, was known as the Peace Marathon. 

Running the Peace Marathon, 2012, with a pennant like 

the one held by Lambrakis in the Peace March of 1963 

Later, when Alpha Bank became the main sponsor of the marathon the word "peace" disappeared from the marathon. All the participants of the marathon were getting a medal upon their arrival, but that was a medal without ribbon. I was finding that inappropriate and the argument that "threading the ribbon was too much work" downright ridiculous. People would be so proud to wear the medal on their chest and the ceremony having the medal handed by a lady in traditional attire, a unique experience. One thing that was also done were the kilometric indications. Now there are permanent along the marathon route, but of course every five years the distance is measured afresh with great precision. The actual record of the classical marathon goes back to the 2004 Olympics and is held by A. Baldini.

Organising Clubs

I am living in the suburb of Nea Ionia. as soon we moved there in 1986, I enquired about the possibilities for athletics and I found out that the football field was in fact a perfect stadium, with a 400  m, 8 lane, track. When I saw that, I started training and with the help of the runners for health I organised an athletics meeting. What was missing was a club. So in 1988 I organised an athletics competition for the school children of Nea Ionia. At the beginning only three schools participated. (Today there are more than 40 with more than 1200 participants).

The need for a club was clear, since the talented children were seeking nearby clubs in order to pursue their activities. Everybody was discouraging me saying that only football can flourish in Nea Ionia, never athletics. Finally I decided to create the club myself. Of course, I could not do this alone. My friend, G. Ioannou, professor of physical education, did help me a lot. He is now deputy mayor, responsible of sports. I knew several people of Nea Ionia who were running and I presented them the idea. They all agreed, provided I took care of that. We had already several potential athletes among the school-boys and girls. G. Ioannou would take care of training and I had to assume the administrative tasks. I convened a first meeting among interested people, also, in order to see if there were enough potential members. In this meeting, where I explained our plan, and the need for financial support in order to launch the club. So in 1996 we created the sports club of Nea Ionia under the name of Anatoli, a reference to the origin of most inhabitants of Nea Ionia, who came from Asia Minor in 1922. But also an allusion (since Anatoli means both East and Sunrise) to the fact that the club will never reach its sunset. And now, 24 years later, the club is still thriving. 

We are organising annually road races for school children, with traffic security, medical coverage, prizes and each year the race was devoted to something important,: environment, against drugs or smoking, against violence, against bulling etc. And this was accompanied by series of conferences where the parents of the schoolchildren were also invited. We had a great success. In 1996, we organised a painting exhibition with the theme of Olympic Games. But I wished to introduce something reminding the first, 1896, Olympics. The one name everybody knows is that of S. Louis, the marathon winner. I found somebody who had a physical resemblance to Louis, I convinced him to dress in the traditional peasants manner in which Louis is depicted in many photos. He did not take the start together of the official race but was hidden in a corner close to the arrival and when the others came close he started running finishing first. That had a great success.

I have the complete archives of 30 years' organisations, since they started in 1986.

Award  ceremony by the Greek Athletic Federation to the

two marathon runners with most participations in the 

Classical Marathon (K.T. on the right), Athens 2012

At this point we started discussing the books Kostas Tsagkarakis has authored. Since I feel that this merits a special presentation (although I have written about the book of G. Papavasileiou) we shall conclude this part of the interview here.