European Championships: Kristof Milak Thunders To 200 Fly Gold In 1:51.10; 2nd Fastest In History
Kristof Milak swam the second-fastest 200 fly in history as he thundered to gold in 1:51.10 at the European Championships in Budapest.
Milak was in a world of his own as he claimed victory by 3.18secs at the Duna Arena ahead of Federico Burdisso of Italy who touched in 1:54.28 with Tamas Kenderesi making it a Hungary one-three in 1:54.43.
It obliterated the 21-year-old’s previous championship record of 1:52.79 he set in Glasgow in 2018 en-route to his first senior medal.
Splits:
2021 Europeans: 24.57/53.12/1:21.76/1:51.10
2019 world record: 24.66/52.88/1:21.57/1:50.73
Photo Courtesy: Deepblluemedia/Insidefoto
All eyes were on Milak and his time is one only he has bettered when he went 1:50.73 en-route to gold at the 2019 World Championships in Gwangju and in the process obliterated Michael Phelps‘ world record of 1:51.51 which had stood since 2009.
It was 0.30 quicker than his time of 1:51.40 from Hungarian Nationals in March which was then second all-time.
Milak now holds the three fastest times in history with Phelps the owner of the next three.
There was a wag of the finger and then a smile and Milak said:
“I don’t know why but I got really tense in the call room and I almost had to throw up.
“This happens sometimes, especially before the 200m fly when I don’t feel that I’m in really good shape.
“I need that confidence before the top races so it was a kind of guessing what would happen here.
“Throughout the race I just wanted to control the technical part, I saw the Italian guy turning behind me before the last 50m so I thought my finish will be OK though I didn’t have any idea where we stood with the times.
“Well, at the end it turned out to be 1.51.1, so I cannot complain…”
Photo Courtesy: Deepbluemedia/Insidefoto
Burdisso, the 2019 world junior bronze medallist, said:
“The semi-final went s0 smoothly and it was easy for me.
“I did not expect the final to be so difficult and hard. I’m happy with my time even though it could have been just a bit better.
“My next race is the 100m fly on Saturday, and of course I’m very happy with the medal.”
Kenderesi had mixed feelings, saying:
“I’m a bit disappointed because I couldn’t achieve the time I did in the semis, in fact my target was 1.53.
“It’s somewhat pleasing that I could do at least 1:54 again, despite the wall didn’t come in the right rhythm at any of the turns but I could somewhat react to that.
“Still, it’s not a good feeling to lose to Federico by a couple of hundredths but I got a medal so I’m accepting this.”
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