Greek Mixed Medley Moves Into 3rd Olympic Wildcard Spot (original) (raw)

Acropolis Grand Prix

• Olympic Aquatic Center, Athens, Greece
• May 28-30, 2021
• Long Course Meters (50m)
• Relay Results

The The Greek 400 mixed medley relay staked their claim on Sunday to race at this summer’s Tokyo Olympics with two days left in the qualification period.

The team of Apostolos Christou (53.24), Konstantinos Meretsolia (1:00.37), Anna Doutounaki (57.08), and Nora Drakou (54.69) swam to a Greek record time of 3:45.38, eclipsing the previous record of 3:49.21 set at last week’s European Championships.

Sixteen countries qualify in each relay for Tokyo: the top 12 teams from prelims at the 2019 FINA World Championships have already earned an automatic qualification spot for Tokyo; this leaves four “Wildcard” spots for the next fastest teams during the qualification period, which runs through today.

The Greeks were out of the rankings after Euros and used the extra week to jump all the way into the third Wildcard position. Brazil, with a time of 3:45.51, moved down one spot to the fourth Wildcard position. Switzerland, who had occupied the last Wildcard spot with a time of 3:46.16, now falls out of the rankings.

This is the second relay that the Greeks have moved into a qualification position as on Friday their men’s 400 medley relay moved up to the fourth Wildcard position.

Besides the Greeks, the final weekend of qualification has seen Canada and Hong Kong move up in the rankings into a Wildcard position.

The rankings of the 400 mixed medley relay:

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• Apostolos Christou

Apostolos Christou