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Shooter Korakaki, 19, won two of Greece’s six medals, gold in
the women’s 25 meter pistol final and bronze in the 10 meter air
pistol event.
Greece President Prokopis Pavlopoulos met the other medal
winners but Korakaki was unable to attend due to a holiday.
Authorities had only informed the athletes late on Wednesday
afternoon about the tribute event.
“I really do not know what to say, I feel frustrated. I have
fallen out with a lot of people recently and obviously we’re now
paying the price for it,” Korakaki’s coach and father Tasos
Korakakis told Greek sports website gazzetta.gr.
“I really don’t want to believe that she has not been invited
deliberately, but still I have some doubts…I actually found out
from journalists about the tribute event last night and
contacted the president of the HOC, Mr (Spiros) Kapralos, who I
think is in no way responsible for it, but there are no
excuses.”
Anna Korakaki is in France.
“They knew Anna would be out of Greece these days and we had
told them to inform us in advance so we could plan accordingly,
her father said.
The Hellenic Olympic Committee (HOC) moved to play down local
media reports that Korakaki was deliberately not invited to the
event.
“It’s not a case of the athlete not being invited,” a HOC
spokesman said.
“The decision by the government to hold the event came late
yesterday afternoon and many other athletes could not attend.
Some athletes have in fact just returned from Rio today. The
state is planning another event when the whole team can be
present.”
(Editing by Ed Osmond)
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