Ioannis Christou

Ioannis Christou
Full name	Ioannis Christou
nation	Greece
birthday	June 23, 1983
place of birth	Kastoria ,  Greece
size	190 cm
Weight	90 kg
Career
discipline	Rowing / Skull , belt
society	Kastoria NO
National squad	since 2000
status	active
Medal table
World championships 0 × 1 × 1 × European championships 5 × 3 × 0 ×
World championships bronze 2010 Hamilton Two without a helmsman silver 2011 Bled Foursome without a helmsman  European championships gold 2007 Poznan Double scull gold 2008 Athens One silver 2009 Brest One gold 2010 Montemor-o-Velho Two without a helmsman gold 2011 Plovdiv Foursome without a helmsman gold 2012 Varese Foursome without a helmsman silver 2014 Belgrade Foursome without a helmsman silver 2015 Poznan Foursome without a helmsman
Last change: September 21, 2015

Ioannis Christou ( Greek Ιωάννης Χρηστου ; born June 23, 1983 in Kastoria , Greece ) is a Greek rower .

Career

Christou made his first international appearance in rowing in 2000, where he took part in the Junior World Championships . Until 2004 he rowed exclusively in the youngsters' age groups in the scull area , and could not win any medals in four international championships.

With his first start at the World Cup in Munich in 2004, where he rowed four- mans in a belt boat without a helmsman , Christou made the transition to the open age group. For the world championships, however, he was only considered in 2005 when he was nominated with Nikolaos Pagounis in two without a helmsman and was able to row to 5th place in the A-final at the world championships in Japan. A year later, the duo finished only 13th at the World Championships in Eton. Pagounis then ended his career, Christou switched back to the scull area and started the 2007 season with Ioannis Tsamis in double sculls . At the world championships only managed 13th place, but a little later the duo became European champions in Poznan.

In 2008 Christou also rowed in a double scull with Tsamis, but then switched to the single and tried to get one of the few remaining starting places for the 2008 Summer Olympics at the international qualifying regatta in Poznan. He was only fourth behind Kenneth Jurkowski , Mindaugas Griškonis and Andrei Jämsä and thus missed the direct qualification for a place. When places reserved for the host China were regularly allocated elsewhere due to the qualification of eleven Chinese teams, Christou was awarded one of these starting places by the World Rowing Association FISA , so he was able to start in Beijing. As the only Greek rower in the open weight class, he finished 10th in the men's single. A little later he also became European champion in the one in Athens. The post-Olympic season 2009 Christou also spent in the single, he finished eighth at the World Championships and won silver at the European Championships .

Christou switched back to the oar area in 2010 and rowed a two-man with Georgios Tziallas . The duo harmonized well and immediately became European champions in Portugal . A bronze medal followed at the world championships . In the following year, Tziallas and Christou switched to the four-man with Stergios Papachristos and Giannis Tsilis and also became European champions in Bulgaria in this boat class and vice-world champions at the world championships of the pre-Olympic season 2011 in Bled. At the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, the Greek four-man with Papachristos, Tsilis, Tziallas and Christou took 4th place with a gap of around 4 seconds on the bronze rank. With the twins Nikolaos and Apostolos Gountoulas for Papachristos and Tsilis, Christou and Tziallas won another European Championship title in Varese a few weeks later .

In the new Olympic cycle, the entire Greek team took a break in the heavy belt area. In 2014 the four-man without was re-formed and now entered the race with Giannis Tsilis, Dionysios Angelopoulos , Georgios Tziallas and Ioannis Christou. At the European Championships in 2014 and 2015 , the quartet won the silver medal behind the British selection. At the world championships he finished 6th in 2014 and 9th with qualification for the Olympic Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro in 2015 . At the 2016 Olympics , the Greek foursome finished eighth.

Christou starts for the Kastoria NO association in his hometown. At a height of 1.90 m, his competition weight is around 90 kg.

Web links

• Ioannis Christou at Worldrowing.com ( FISA database )
• Ioannis Christou in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ USA M1x, LW2x Qualify for 2008 Olympic Games in Poznan. row2k.com, June 18, 2008, accessed September 22, 2015 .