The Hellenic Radio (ERA): News in English, 08-08-10

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From: The Hellenic Radio (ERA) <www.ert.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] Performance of Greek Athletes on Day 2

By Giahanatzis Dimitris

Sources: ANA

The performance of the Greek athletes that competed on day two of the 29th Olympic Games was rather poor. The oarsmen and oarswomen were the ones that stood out. Bronze Olympic medalist Vassilis Polymeros along with Demetris Mougios finished second in the preliminaries, clocking 6:16:10 and booked a ticket for the final. Chryssa Biskitzi and her partner Alexandra Tsiavou will fight for a place in the semis, as they landed fifth place in the preliminaries clocking 7:05:95.

The national basketball and water polo teams got off on the wrong foot. Panayiotis Giannakis squad lost 81-66 to Spain, while the water polo team was defeated by the Australians with 12-8.

The two beach volleyball teams did not do better. Vasso Karantasiou and Vicky Arvaniti lost 2-0 to Stefanie and Doris Schwaiger of Austria. Although performing well, Thalia Koutroumanidou and Maria Tsiartsiani sustained a 2-1 defeat by Chinese duo Xue Chen and Zhang Xi.

In sailing, Emilios Papathanasiou ranks 15th, after landing fifth place in the third race and failing to finish the fourth. Sofia Bekatorou, Sofia Papadopoulou and Virginia Kravarioti rank 11th, after finishing ninth in the third race and third in the fourth.

Judoka Tariel Zintirides was defeated by US Taylor Takata in the Mens -66kg division.

In artistic gymnastics, Stefani Bisbikou did not manage to advance to the finals, since she finished 39th, scoring a total of 56.625 points.

In swimming, all four Greek swimmers failed to make it through. Aris Grigoriades finished fifth in heat 4 of the Mens 100m breaststroke, clocking 54,71. Andreas Zisimos landed sixth place in heat 5 of the Mens 200m Crawl, clocking 1:48:50, Aggeliki Exarhou sixth in heat 4 of the Womens 100m Breaststroke clocking 1:10:47, and Elvira Efstathiou fourth in heat 3 of the Womens 400m Crawl, clocking 4:15:78.

Finally, the extreme weather conditions affecting Beijing, which has been battered by strong winds and storms, forced the organizers to postpone most of the encounters of day two. As a result, Greek tennis players Lena Daniilidou and Anna Gerasimou did not compete.

[02] Summer Storm Hits Greece

Sources: ΝΕΤ, ΝΕΤ 105.8, ANA-MPA

Showers and storms broke out early on Sunday evening in several regions across Greece. A strong hailstorm hit the central Greek cities of Megara and Elefsian, while thunderbolts sparked fires in the areas of Alepohori and Karaouli. The downpour that followed put out the fires.

Similar conditions prevailed in the towns of Gythio and Zaharo in southern Greece. The Fire Service received dozens of calls to have flood waters pumped out.

Serious problems were also caused in the northern Greek towns of Halkidiki and Kavala, while landslide and flood waters suspended traffic on Egnatia Odos near the town of Asprovalta for two and a half hours.

The hailstorm also caused serious damage to crops in Thessaly

Translated by Areti Christou

[03] The OSE Plan Sparks Reactions

Sources: ΝΕΤ

The plan to have the Hellenic Railway Organisation (OSE) consolidated and reorganized has sparked reactions among the OSE personnel. Hundreds of OTE employees are waiting for the voluntary redundancy plan to retire, while the Organisations unionists react to the likelihood of executives from the free market covering managerial posts. Their objections rely on the fact they have no knowledge of the Organisations peculiarities.

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