Vardinoyiannia International Athletics Meeting

The 23rd Vardinoyiannia Track and Field Meeting took place on 18th July 2007. The ‘Vardinoyiannia’ has achieved considerable prestige in recent years, being one of a select group of area meetings where points can be gained by athletes to qualify for the IAAF / VTB Bank World Athletics Final, and attracts some of the crème de la crème of the athletics world. And IT IS A FREE EVENT! The Stadium is quite impressive — it’s not huge, obviously, but certainly does the job. Organisation was fine—events all went off on time without a hitch. Furthermore, the meeting managed to maintain a friendly Cretan feel to it, and everybody seemed to have a thoroughly enjoyable time .

There were many sporting highlights that evening, here are just a few: Usain Bolt from Jamaica - better known for his prowess at the 200m won the 100m sprint, achieving a personal best of 10.03. Olympic Champion Dwight Phillips won the men’s long-jump and achieved a meeting record of 8.31 m. Cristina Casandra from Romania set a new Balkan record for the women’s 3,000 m steeplechase (9:28:53). Greek athletes put in some powerful performances: Perikles Iakovakis won the 400 m hurdles and Sava Lika won the women’s javelin, whilst Chyrsopigi Devetzi and Styliani Pilatou came second and third, respectively, in the women’s long-jump.