In technical freestyle

Vasiliki Alexandri confidently wins gold at the European Championships

Vasiliki Alexandri(Bild: GEPA pictures)

Best in the free freestyle preliminaries on Monday, a day later a class of her own in the technical freestyle final: synchronized swimmer Vasiliki Alexandri has so far lived up to her role as favourite at the European Championships in Belgrade. 

The 27-year-old soloist secured her first European Championship gold medal in impressive style on Tuesday, scoring 260.5967 points and thus significantly more than Germany's Klara Bleyer (242.9617) and the Netherlands' Marloes Steenbeek (240.4816).

"It's a dream come true for me," emphasized Alexandri in an initial statement. Being at the top now means everything to her. "I am very proud that me and my sisters have achieved this and that we are making history for Austria. I am very happy," said the OSV ace. After the unfortunate World Championships at the beginning of the year, she had to fight a kind of depression. "Now I feel blessed. After everything that has happened in the last four months." She dedicated the medal to her mother and her sisters who were missing in Belgrade.

It was the third European Championship medal in the career of Alexandri, who has been a naturalized citizen for ten years, after she had won bronze twice in Rome in August 2022 according to the old evaluation criteria. At last year's World Championships in Fukuoka, she had set her career highlights to date with two silver medals. This year, she had to settle for sixth place twice at the World Championships in Qatar. In the current season, the European Championship triumph was her second success after winning the technical competition at the Paris World Cup.

(Bild: GEPA pictures)

Because her sisters had to cancel their duet competition due to Eirini-Marini Alexandri's flu-like infection, Vasiliki will be flying Austria's synchronized flag high in Belgrade. The Südstadt athlete will have the chance to win double gold in the free freestyle final at the Milan Gale Muskatirovic Sports Center on Thursday. This had previously been set as a clear goal, also because some aces were not at the start because they were focusing on the Olympic duet. The solo competitions are not on the program in Paris this summer.

"The most important thing is that I deliver my performance and stay focused. The rest will come naturally. Do everything step by step. Double European Championship gold would of course be the absolute dream," said Alexandri.