Periklís Iakovákis
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Periklís Iakovákis (, , born 24 March 1979 in
Patras Patras (; ; Katharevousa and ; ) is Greece's List of cities in Greece, third-largest city and the regional capital and largest city of Western Greece, in the northern Peloponnese, west of Athens. The city is built at the foot of Mount Panachaiko ...
) is a retired
Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
athlete mainly competing in
400 metres hurdles The 400 metres hurdles is a track and field hurdling event. The event has been on the Summer Olympics, Olympic Sport of athletics, athletics programme since 1900 Summer Olympics, 1900 for men and since 1984 Summer Olympics, 1984 for women. On a ...
. He is the Greek record holder with a time of 47.82 seconds and fifteen times national champion in the event. He has competed at four
Summer Olympics The Summer Olympic Games, also known as the Summer Olympics or the Games of the Olympiad, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inaugural Games took place in 1896 in Athens, then part of the King ...
(2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012) and is a six-time participant at the
World Championships in Athletics The World Athletics Championships, known as the IAAF World Championships in Athletics until 2019, are a biennial athletics competition organized by World Athletics, formerly International Association of Athletics Federations. Alongside Olympic ...
. He was the world bronze medalist in 2003 and the
European champion A European Championship is the top level international sports competition between European athletes or sports teams representing their respective countries or professional sports clubs. In the plural, the European Championships also refers to a ...
in 2006. His first major win came at the
1998 World Junior Championships 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water Ice is water tha ...
and he won the gold medal at the
2001 Mediterranean Games The XIV Mediterranean Games (), commonly known as the 2001 Mediterranean Games, were the 14th Mediterranean Games held in Tunis, Tunisia, from 2–15 September 2001, where 2,991 athletes (1,972 men and 1,019 women) from 23 countries participated. ...
. He was named the 2003 and 2006 Greek Male Athlete of the Year.


Career

In 1998 Iakovakis won the gold medal at the World Junior Championships in Annecy, France with 49.82 seconds, and five years later he won the bronze medal at the
2003 World Championships in Athletics The 9th World Championships in Athletics, under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations, were held from 23 August to 31 August 2003 in the streets of Paris and the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, Seine-Saint-Denis, F ...
in Paris-Saint-Denis, France. In the final at the
Stade de France Stade de France (, ) is the national stadium of France, located just north of Paris in the commune of Saint-Denis, Seine-Saint-Denis, Saint-Denis. Its seating capacity of 80,698 makes it the List of football stadiums in France, largest stadium i ...
, he finished in 48.24 seconds after Félix Sánchez and Joey Woody. Iakovakis achieved his personal best of 47.82 seconds on 6 May 2006 in Osaka during the IAAF World Athletics Tour and won his first major competition 3 months later. He became
European Champion A European Championship is the top level international sports competition between European athletes or sports teams representing their respective countries or professional sports clubs. In the plural, the European Championships also refers to a ...
in Gothenborg, Sweden finishing at 48.46 seconds in the final. After his win at the European Championships, Iakovakis won the full-lap hurdles event in 47.92 seconds at the Zurich Weltklasse Golden League meet at the last evening that this top meeting would be held at the
Letzigrund Letzigrund () is a stadium in Zurich, Switzerland, the home of the football (soccer), football clubs FC Zürich and Grasshopper Club Zürich, as well as the Sport of athletics, athletics club . The original stadium was constructed by members of FC ...
. The reigning European Champion was then first at the Herculis IAAF World Athletics Tour meeting in Monaco. He won the bronze medal at the
2009 IAAF World Athletics Final The 7th IAAF World Athletics Final was held at the Kaftanzoglio Stadium in Thessaloniki, Greece on September 12 and September 13, 2009. The competition represented the culmination of the 2009 IAAF World Athletics Tour, a selection of athletics m ...
, which was the last edition of the competition and was held in
Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; ), also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, Salonika, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece (with slightly over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area) and the capital cit ...
. In 2010 he set a season target of defending his European title. He suffered a minor injury to his
soleus muscle In humans and some other mammals, the soleus is a powerful muscle in the back part of the lower leg (the calf). It runs from just below the knee to the heel and is involved in standing and walking. It is closely connected to the gastrocnemius mus ...
in March, but recovered and began his preparation in
South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...
and Cyprus. He identified
Dai Greene David "Dai" Greene (born 11 April 1986) is a Welsh retired hurdler who specialised in the 400 metres hurdles, competing internationally for both Wales and Great Britain, as well as Europe in the IAAF Intercontinental Cup. In a 'golden' sixteen ...
(the eventual winner) as his main European rival in the event. Finally he did not succeed in his goal, as he finished in the fifth place in the 2010 European final, having run in the tight first lane. He was slower in the 2011 season and, for the first time since 1998, his fastest run that year was over 50 seconds. He missed a seventh consecutive appearance at the World Championships, but did compete for Greece in the First League of the
2011 European Team Championships The third European Team Championships took place on 18 and 19 June 2011. The Competition was divided between four divisions, with results determining promotion and relegation between them. The Super League event was held in Stockholm, at the Stock ...
, where he won the 400 m hurdles race. He marked a resurgence in form at the 2012 Greek Championships by winning his 15th straight national title, including a run of 49.04 seconds in the heats.Georgiotis, Vasileios (2012-06-17)

IAAF World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation and International Association of Athletics Federations and formerly abbreviated as the IAAF, is the international sports governing body, governing body for the sport ...
. Retrieved on 2012-06-24.
Maria Sotirakopoulou has been his coach for many years.


Honours


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Iakovakis, Periklis 1979 births Living people Athletes from Patras Sportspeople from Trikala Greek male hurdlers Olympic athletes for Greece Athletes (track and field) at the 2000 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2004 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2008 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2012 Summer Olympics Mediterranean Games gold medalists for Greece Mediterranean Games bronze medalists for Greece Athletes (track and field) at the 2001 Mediterranean Games Athletes (track and field) at the 2013 Mediterranean Games World Athletics Championships athletes for Greece World Athletics Championships medalists Greek European Athletics Championships winners Mediterranean Games medalists in athletics Greek male sprinters Greek Athletics Championships winners