Galery

2

1

Emanuela Karastoyanova

Total of 33 athletes, teams, coaches and people who have contributed to sport in 2009 were awarded by the Union of Greek sports journalists at the stadium “Peace and friendship”. The 56^th award ceremony passed in an atmosphere of cult towards sport and rethinking the idea of it. "Sport is not only for the selected, rich or powerful. Even when sport is only a profession, it is still just sport and culture, but when it ceases to be so we have a problem, "said in his opening speech Gerakaris Pavlos, President of the Union.

In the category of Best Athlete the award was given to Maras Vlasis - artistic gymnastics. Vlasis has won a gold medal at the European Championship in Milan Mediolanum Forum for the performance on a lever, and his 15 375 points were the highest score of the championship and he became the only player with 4 gold medals in this discipline. In the category Best Sportswoman the award was given to Alexandra Tsiavu. This year Tsiavu won a gold medal in three major competitions in rowing - two of which are on the World and on the Mediterranean Championships.

Award in the category Best Team was awarded to the basketball team Panathinaikos, which in 2009 had an extremely successful year. The team won the 12^th Cup in its history by defeating Olympiakos with 80:70, and with its victory against Panyonios on February 9, 2009 it became the first team with 1000 wins in the history of basketball. In the category Best Coach, awarded was the basketball coach Zeljko Obradovic.

Since 2004 the Union of Greek sports journalists are giving another prize in the category best disabled sportsman / sportswoman. This year the prize was awarded to George Kapelakis - winner of gold medal (in the category S2) of 50m backstroke swimming and bronze in 100m freestyle at the European Championship in Reykjavik (17-23 October 2009) and Semih Rizaoglu - winner of gold medal in the S3 category of 50m backstroke in the same championship.

Award for Contribution to Sport was awarded to the Olympiakos player Predrag Djordjevic for his 20-year contribution to football, from which he withdrew after the end of this year's football season at the age of 37. During his 13 year career in Olympiakos Djordjevic took part in 484 matches, won 12 championships, 5 cups of Greece and one Super Cup. He is the Olympiakos player, who has a record number of appearances in Europe and who became the symbol of Olympiakos.

Award for Contribution to Sport was also awarded to Frankiskos Alverti - "living history of the green” and of Greek basketball. During his 19 year career in Panathinaikos with the t-shirt number 4, "Frankie" as everybody calls him won 11 championships in Greece and 8 cups and 5 cups of Europe, Triple Crown 2007 and 2009. He has participated in 155 competitions with the national team of Greece.

The Fair Play Award was given to Aris goalkeeper Mihalis Sifakis for his conduct during the match Iraklis-Aris on August 29, 2009, when one of the fans came down on the field and grabbed him by the neck, but he remained calm, did not react and awaited the intervention of the security. The award for Social Contribution was given to Emilios and Alexandra Martini family for guiding all of their four children to sports. The four girls - Natalie, Monica, Paola and Laura engage in horse riding and can now brag of success on international level.

A special award was given to Spyros Lembesis - young talent javelin thrower. 22-year boy was awarded for both medals he received this year - a bronze in the European Championship for boys and silver from the Mediterranean Cup. The same prize was awarded also to 16 year old tennis player Eleni Konstantinidu, who this year ranked in the quarterfinals of the European championship in tennis for juniors.

Special award was given to Platanioti Gospels (synchronized swimming),
Maria and Daniel Vulgaraki Pashu (sailing), who last August won a silver medal on the European Championships on Lake Balaton and Konstantinos Karageorgos (cycling), who is a gold medal winner in the championship for youth in Minsk.

Honor Award by Union of Greek sports journalists was awarded to Otto Rehangel for his 8 year highly successful career in the national football team of Greece. Rehangel has more than 100 matches (52 wins, 22 regular performance and 26 losses). In 2004 he made Greece a European Champion and during the match with Ukraine on November 18, 2009 he led Greece to the finals in 2010. Honorary Award was also given to: the national junior basketball team, who won the gold medal at the European Junior Championship in Rhodes in July, the Union of Friends of the National Football Team "White-blue lamp” (the union exists since 2004. A reason for its foundation is the title of the European Championship, won by Greece in 2004. Currently the union has 2000 members) and the charitable company “Stavros Niarhos” for its activity and contribution in the field of arts, culture, education, health and social work (mainly with Greece).

Cyprian Kiriakos Yoanu  was awarded with the International Prize for his silver medal in high jump at the World Championships in Berlin in August.