Kristof Milak scorched to a national 100 free record of 48.00 as he continued his golden form at the Hungarian Nationals in Budapest before revealing his disappointment at not going 47.
The 21-year-old had qualified second for the final with a PB of 48.89 behind Nandor Nemeth who had come within 0.03 off his Hungarian record in 48.11 in Thursday evening’s heats at the Duna Arena.
Come Friday morning and it was Milak who took centre stage, splitting 23.06/24.94 to go top of the world rankings, finishing ahead of Nemeth (48.17) and Szebasztián Szabó who clocked 49.08.
There was also a 111th national title for Laszlo Cseh with the BVSC-Zuglo mixed medley relay squad.
The six-time Olympic medallist won his first national gold in 2000 – the same year Milak was born.
Photo Courtesy: deepbluemedia/Giorgio Scala
It has been some week for Milak who has won the 50, 100 and 400 free as well as producing the second-fastest 200 fly in history in 1:51.40 – bettered only by his own world record.
The 200 fly world champion also split 1:44.86 anchoring a Hungarian 4×200 quartet to a national mark of 7:07.67 and won 50 fly silver.
Some programme and with the 100 fly and 200 free still to come.
While 48 won’t secure a medal in Tokyo, Milak’s improvement from evening heats to morning finals indicates fine things await and especially so given he is unrested.
Fanni Gyurinovics won the women’s race in 55.56.
Milak though had some regret that he had not become the first Hungarian to go 47, telling musz.hu:
“I thought I was going out in a 22.5, as I did in the relay, so compared to this 23.06 is a pretty slow start.
“I was aware that my swimming speed was better than everyone.
“So now I say for the first time that it was good, although……. 48.00 – I’m a little disappointed because I wanted to swim better, I wanted to be the first Hungarian to swim 47!”
Looking forward to the 200free, he outlined his goal of replicating his relay swim. Should he do so, Milak would then topple Dominik Kozma’s Hungarian record of 1:45.54 which he set in this very pool at the 2017 worlds.
Milak said:
“I swam very well in the 200 free relay and I would like to do 44 (1:44) in the morning as well in the individual! ”
Coach Attila Selmeci described it as “a perfect swim”, saying:
“Kristóf started slowly in the preliminary race yesterday, but today everything went very well, including the start and the turn.
“I expected a time around 48.4 beforehand, which surprised me now, but Nándi Németh also needed this great time, because the two of them fought a real big battle like that.”
Verraszto And Hosszu Take 400IM Titles
If eyes had been on Nemeth and his rattling of the Hungarian 100fr record on Thursday evening, Peter Bernek also commanded attention with a 4:12.60 heat in the 400IM ahead of three-time European champion David Verrasztó.
He led at halfway but a breaststroke leg of 69.87 propelled Verraszto to the head of the field, almost two seconds ahead of Bernek, his closest challenger.
David Verraszto – Photo Courtesy: Greg Bartram-US PRESSWIRE
Bernek made some inroads on the freestyle but it was Verraszto, the two-time world silver medallist, who claimed the title in 4:13.57.
Bernek was second in 4:14.70 with Daniel Sos taking third in 4:16.91.
Splits:
Verraszto: 58.65/2:03.35/3:13.82/4:13.57
Bernek: 58.02/2:02.60/3:15.77/4:14.70
Verraszto was a man of few words after the race, saying: “The breaststroke part was quite good” while Bernek was animated, saying:
“By far this is my best morning time. It was great, I enjoyed it!
“I think that was the maximum I could get out of this morning swim, but the point is that I finally managed to swim to an individual peak yesterday afternoon.
“It’sunusual to have the afternoon preliminaries and morning finals so at the Olympics you will have to give 150 per cent to get to the finals.”
Katinka Hosszu completed the IM double by adding the longer medley to the 200 in 4:42.35 with Viktóri Mihályvári-Farkas second in 4:48.93.
Hosszu also came fourth in the 200 back and the Olympic champion said:
Photo Courtesy: Mine Kasapoglu / ISL
“It was technically better to feel than the 200.
“I don’t know yet what form the 200 back will be in the future. This is my second race this year, if we look at it that way, we are very early.
“There will be more competitions in Stockholm and Helsinki before the European Championships, and hopefully there will be another bunch such as in Rome before the Olympics.
“The goal with this meet was to get used to racing. Fortunately, I am starting to feel better and better both mentally and technically. That seems good now, that’s where the work needs to done!”
Back To The Future For Burian
Katalin Burian: Photo Courtesy: Becca Wyant
Katalin Burian won the women’s 200 back in 2:08.81, the morning after going third in the rankings with a heat swim of 2:08.20.
Burian, who had already booked her ticket to Tokyo in the 100m and she split 30.80/1:03.29/1:36.23 before extending her lead in the final 50 ahead of Eszter Szabó-Feltóthy who clocked 2:10.03.
She said:
“Now I am very relieved to finally get to the Olympics.
“It’s like I’m breathing now, like that heavy stone has rolled off my chest now!
“That 200 back went really well, though, I didn’t get into that so much, the point was to win.
“I was very disappointed with yesterday’s swimming, then I swam with other tactics.
“Unfortunately, I died a lot in the last 20 metres yesterday, but I started much better, 0.7 better than in the European Championships (2018), and even up to 150 I had a very strong split.
“I really messed up the touch, which is why I still berate myself. Because of this, I could barely sleep.
“The point of today was to win and of course try to enjoy the swimming a bit.”
Adam Telegdy won the men’s race in 1:57.90 following a Thursday night heat swim of 1:57.30.
David Horvath won the 200br in 2:13.05 with Eszter Békési taking the women’s title in 2:28.19.
In the relays, Cseh swam a 52.30 butterfly leg as BVSC won the mixed medley relay in 3:57.93, Győri Úszó Sportegy won the women’s 4x1oo free in 3:47.99 and BVSC took the men’s title in 3:20.54.
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