Paris Olympics, Day 4 Prelims: Kristof Milak The Only Man Inside 1:54 Atop 200 Fly Prelims: Tomoru Honda 22nd

Kristof Milak: Photo courtesy: European Aquatics

Paris Olympics, Day 4 Prelims: Kristof Milak The Only Man Inside 1:54 To Top 200 Fly: Tomoru Honda 22nd

It’s five years and six days since Kristof Milak first broke the 200 fly world record, crushing Michael Phelps’ previous standard that had stood for 10 years.

The young Hungarian’s time of 1:50.73 drew gasps inside the Main Aquatics Centre in Gwangju and reverberated around the swimming world and beyond.

The 19-year-old had sliced 0.76 from Phelps’ WR of 1:51.51 from the 2009 worlds, a time he subsequently lowered to 1:50.34 in front of a home crowd at Budapest 2022.

His shuddering performance in 2019 followed 100 fly silver at the 2017 world championships as he announced himself on the senior international stage.

Milak won 2oo gold and 100 silver at the Tokyo Olympics and every time he stood on the blocks, the question was “what can he do this time?”

However, in 2023 he withdrew from the Fukuoka worlds to focus on his mental health with Leon Marchand winning the title in 1:52.43, a French record as he became the third-fastest all-time.

Milak returned to competition at the Hungarian Championships in April, since when he has posted 1:53.94 at the Mare Nostrum tour to arrive in Paris second in the rankings behind Japan’s Tomoru Honda who went 1:53.88 en-route to gold at the Doha worlds.

World Record: Kristof Milak, HUN – 1:50.34 (2022)
Olympic Record: Kristof Milak, HUN – 1:51.25 (2021)
Tokyo Olympic Champion Kristof Milak, HUN – 1:51.25
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And it was Milak who topped the prelims, the only man inside 1:54 in a season’s best 1:53.92, ahead of Ilya Kharun of Canada (1:54.06), Noe Ponti (1:54.77), Alberto Razzetti of Italy (1:54.78) and Austria’s Martin Espernberger (1:55.19).

Marchand – greeted with deafening roars once more by a raucous home crowd at La Defense Arena – eased through in sixth in 1:55.26, mindful of his 200 breaststroke prelim in two hours’ time.

There was a big shock as Honda, silver medallist three years ago in Tokyo, went 1:57.12 to finish 22nd.

Richard Marton of Hungary clinched the 16th and final semi spot in 1:56.03 with the USA’s Luca Urlando locked out by one place as first reserve in 1:56.18.

In a pre-Paris interview, Ponti told Swimming World how at times he struggles with his execution of the 200 fly.

Following his prelim, he said: “I think that is my fastest in the morning, not my PB, but my fastest swim in the morning. It was good, it was good but it was hard. The last metres were very hard but I somehow managed to get to the semifinal with the third (fastest) time so that’s the important thing. Tonight it’s a new race.”

Of there being some eyebrow-raising results in the French capital of which Honda’s was one of the most notable, Ponti said: “That’s the Olympics!

“You don’t have to swim fast during the season, you have to swim fast at the Olympics. Many people struggle with it: I don’t know, maybe I won’t even go faster in the 2 fly tonight. So you’ve got to try to do the best possible here and I think times don’t really matter, you should just try to touch before the others and make it to the final. And in the final everything is possible.”

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