St. Gikas: “With the large participation, the sporting records and the international recognition, we succeeded in making the Archipelago heard loudly, bringing our islands closer together and offering a high-level competitive spectacle”
The 36th organization of the Aegean Athletics Games, organized by the Ministry of Shipping and Insular Policy and SEGAS, was held with absolute success and with a “record” at a competitive and organizational level.
The Athletics Games were held on Saturday 4 and Sunday 5 October 2025 at the Municipal Stadium of Chios, where 550 athletes from 18 islands participated in the two days of competition, representing 36 clubs and 7 schools/ disabled clubs , from the EAS Lesvos, EAS Chios-Samos, EAS Cyclades and EAS Dodecanese, offering the Chios public high-level classical sports.
The organization was substantially upgraded, since this year the Games were included in the global calendar of World Athletics , giving additional prestige and international recognition to the competitive section, as well as visibility of the great sporting event of the Aegean Archipelago, with the exemplary cooperation of the General Secretariat for Aegean and Island Policy and SEGAS.
The tightening of the framework for holding the Games also brought significant additions to the organization protocols, such as the implementation of accreditations for the competition area, while participants competed with numbers bearing their surname, with electronic performance monitoring, while digital measurements in javelin and long throw operated seamlessly, ensuring reliability and speed.
The results were automatically posted on the global Roster platform.
In the field of extroversion and awareness-raising, a team from SEGAS, consisting of the President of SEGAS, Mrs. Sofia Sakorafa, and distinguished Greek athletes and members of the Organizing Committee, specifically Christoforos Merousis, Giorgos Kritoulis, Elisabeth Psoma, Nikos Panagiotopoulos, Alexandros Papamichael and Maria Stavrianou, visited schools in Chios on Thursday 2 and Friday 3 October —including the 2nd Primary School of Chios— and spoke to the students about the value of sports, “fair play” and their personal paths, inviting them to attend the Games as official guests in a specially designed area in the stands.
The Municipal Stadium of Chios welcomed the delegations fully prepared, with new equipment, with the care of the Municipality of Chios. At the same time, Ms. Vania Andreopoulou, Secondary Education Art Teacher, was honored, who, together with her students, beautified the entrance of the Stadium with paintings, offering a warm welcome to athletes and spectators.
The organization was once again the result of a loving collaboration between the island EAS (Chios-Samos, Lesvos, Cyclades and Dodecanese), with the support of the Municipality of Chios and the North Aegean Region, while significant support, by providing discounts on the athletes’ travel, was provided by: Blue Star Ferries, Hellenic Seaways, Golden Star Ferries, Minoan Lines, Seajets, Dodekanisos Seaways and Fast Ferries. Communication sponsors were ERT3 and ERT North Aegean.
The organization was implemented with funding from the General Secretariat for the Aegean and Insular Policy, within the framework of its institutional role, from resources of the Sectoral Development Program of the Ministry of Shipping and Insular Policy, while the Regional Union of Municipalities of the North Aegean, the Region of the North Aegean for the transportation of athletes from the North Aegean and the Municipality of Chios contributed financially with significant interventions in the upgrading of the stadium and the implementation of parallel events for the opening and closing ceremonies of the Games.
The Deputy Minister of Shipping and Island Policy, Stefanos Gikas, stated:
“I am very satisfied because at the 36th Aegean Athletics Games in Chios, with the large participation, the athletic records and the international recognition, we succeeded in making the Archipelago heard loudly, bringing our islands closer together and offering a high-level competitive spectacle! The baton is passed to Molyvos for 2026. We continue dynamically by the side of our islanders!”.
The President of the Organizing Committee and Secretary General of Aegean and Island Policy, Manolis Koutoulakis, stated:
“The 36th Aegean Games confirmed that the Aegean can organize high-standard competitions. With the support of the General Secretariat, the organization is both our institutional and essential obligation to island classical sports, where together with SEGAS for 36 years we have been offering generously and non-negotiablely for the entire Aegean. The inclusion of the Games in the World Athletics calendar is a qualitative benchmark that we sought and set with SEGAS and President Sofia Sakorafa. For 2026, the Games will be held in Lesvos and at the Molyvos stadium, where, with a beautiful ceremony, we handed over to the Municipality of West Lesvos the flag of the Games and the mandate for a high-quality organization, which we are sure will take place.”
