Argyro Afrati, one of Greece’s two options for the Olympic Games this summer, easily won the national all-around title over the weekend in addition to earning the title on bars.

17-year-old Afrati reached a 53.3 all-around, showing her typically strong work on vault and floor in the first day of competition before going on to win the bars gold (with a fall) and floor silver in event finals. A fall on beam in finals was her one unfortunate regret, as she had hoped to at least get the silver. Still, she was happy with her win and says she has a few upgrades coming at European Championships, which will be one of the final deciding competitions between Afrati and two-time Olympian Vasiliki Millousi.

Millousi, 32, finished a point ahead of Afrati at the Olympic Test Event last month and opted to compete only on beam and floor in Thessaloniki. She earned scores of 14.75 and 12.7, respectively, on the first day of competition and then went on to win the titles on both events, with a 14.5 on beam and a 13.65 on floor.

Millousi is the clear favorite to compete in Rio this summer, but it’s nice to see Afrati bring in some tough competition especially at her young age. She’s come a long way in the past couple of years and should run the show for Greece in the coming quad.

Aside from Afrati, no one else from Greece’s worlds team competed on all four events here. Evangelia Monokrousou, a new senior last year, competed on all but bars, and in event finals won the vault silver with a 12.962 average and floor bronze with a 12.025. Evangelia Plyta competed on all but floor, winning bars silver with an 11.45 despite her two falls, and beam bronze with a 12.8. Ioanna Xoulogi competed only on beam and floor, winning beam silver with a 13.45 for her steady set, though a fall on floor left her in fourth place in finals there with an 11.775, disappointing after her 13.0 finish in prelims.

The second-place finisher was Maria Parsantanian, one of the 2008 Olympic hopefuls who is now back in competition at age 25. Parsantanian had a 47.25 all-around for the silver medal and also won vault with a 13.275 average, though her difficulty on all four events is quite low, and she was unable to challenge for the podium elsewhere.

Mina Vartholomaiou won the bronze all-around medal with a 43.85 and also picked up bronze on bars, tying Zoi Toka with an 8.975 despite a couple of falls there. Rounding out the all-around were Christina Kiosi in fourth with a 42.1, Alexandra Emeinidou in fifth with a 40.8 (she also won vault bronze), Glykeria Tsagkali in sixth with a 40.75, and Maria Kousataloglou in seventh with a 38.45.

At next month’s European Championships, Monokrousou, Plyta, and Xoulogi will likely join Afrati and Millousi as they hope to fight for a spot in the team final.

Full results from this year’s Greek Championships are available here.

Article by Lauren Hopkins