The Olympic year of 2020 is almost upon on! With little less than eight months to go until the opening ceremony of the "Tokyo 2020" Olympic Games, Team Cyprus has already qualified eleven athletes, seven men and four women, in five sports.
Taking into account the small size of the island-country, with just less than a million population, the number of eleven qualified with more than half a year to go, is put plainly, impressive! Especially considering that nations with populations of tens of millions or with much greater Olympic success have less qualified athletes at this stage.
The latest Cypriot to qualify, in late October, was Andri Christoforou in the women’s road race event of cycling, who qualified via the UCI World Ranking. Earlier in October, three other qualifications occurred for Cyprus. Artistic gymnast and European All-Around bronze medalist of 2019 Marios Georgiou qualified via the FIG World Championship in Stuttgart. And during the World Athletics World Championships in Doha, 110m hurdler and 2019 indoor European champion Milan Trajkovic and discus thrower Apostolos Parellis also qualified by achieving qualification standards.
In mid-December 2019, Team Cyprus ahead of Tokyo 2020 has eleven athletes qualified. They are: Pavlos Kontides (Sailing / laser), Andri Eleftheriou (Shooting / skeet), Andreas Makris (Shooting / trap), Marilena Makri (Sailing / laser), Eleni Artymata (Athletics / 400m), Dimitris Constantinou (Shooting / skeet), Andreas Cariolou (Sailing / RS:X), Apostolos Parellis (Athletics / discus), Milan Trajkovic (Athletics / 110m hurdles), Marios Georgiou (Artistic Gymnastics / all-around), Andri Christoforou (Cycling / road race).
In the upcoming months, Team Cyprus is expected to grow. Two swimmers will join the squad, while various athletes in sports such as Athletics, Shooting, Sailing, Gymnastics, Taekwondo and others are continuing their effort to qualify for the Olympic Games.
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