Szebasztián Szabó Wins Seventh Straight 50 Fly Title At Hungarian Championships To Book Singapore Slot
Szebasztián Szabó left Kristóf Milák and Hubert Kós in his wake as he won his seventh straight 50 fly title at the Hungarian Championships in Kaposvár.
Szabó stopped the clock at 23.17 to book his berth at the World Championships which run in Singapore from 27 July to 3 August. It was the joint 21st swiftest of his career, topped by his Hungarian record of 22.90 en-route to fifth at the 2019 worlds in Gwangju. Milák was second in 23.43 with Kós third in 23.53 as he added more silverware to his 50/100 back double and 200IM gold. He sets sail in the 200 back on Saturday in which he’s the Olympic champion.
Szabó – who won the European title in 2021 – said through the Hungarian federation: “The swim went very well. I have the A-cut, plus another gold. I couldn’t come so far last year, but now I got a time like that right in the first race, so I’m very happy.”
Just 0.70 separated the entire women’s field with Beatrix Tanko taking the title in 27.04 ahead of Szonja Szokol (27.25) and Flora Molnar (27.33).
Tanko said: “I’ve been preparing for a long time to finally stand on the podium – and this national championship has been wonderful so far, I finished second in the 50 freestyle. I just won, it’s really wonderful.”
Jackl Books Singapore Ticket & Zombori Claims Third Straight Title
Vivien Jackl: Photo courtesy: European Aquatics
Vivien Jackl overcame jet lag to defend her title in the 400IM and confirm her spot for Singapore. The 16-year-old – who won European silver last year behind Anastasia Gorbenko – swam below expectations in the 1500 before withdrawing from two events on Thursday. She only returned home on Monday from a Florida training camp with new coach Shane Tusup – former partner of Katinka Hosszu – and had struggled to recover. However, she stopped the clock at 4:40.70, a year after she won the title in 4:34.96 as Viktória Mihályvári-Farkas (4:44.89) and Eszter Szabo-Feltothy (4:48.27) enjoyed the minor spoils.
Jackl said: “To be honest, I didn’t think my time would be like this, I was just looking at the World Championships level and I hoped I could swim 4:42 somehow. It felt much better than in the morning, and I didn’t expect to be able to get so far away from the field and swim alone… I’m glad that I managed to do this, because yesterday the jetlag slipped in, I fell asleep in my events, so I definitely tried to prepare for this day to go much better.”
Gábor Zombori upgraded his 200IM silver to gold as he won his third straight 400IM title. The 2024 European bronze medallist’s winning time of 4:13.75 was 1.13secs quicker than the 4:14.88 that guided him to 14th at Paris 2024. Dominik Torok added silver to his 200 bronze in 4:15.12 with Balázs Holló – who won silver at last year’s continental championships in Belgrade – third in 4:15.40.
Zombori said: “I had a little knee problem lately, so we neglected breaststroke a bit, so we knew that now the 100 breaststroke will be the dark part of the four strokes, so to speak. So I knew that if I wanted to get a better time out of this, I couldn’t turn to the breaststroke with the two guys, and so it happened. Fortunately, in the end I caught the breaststroke quite well, I didn’t feel as tired as I did in the 200, which resulted in this 4:13, which is a very good time for me in April.”
Békési Punches Ticket As Veteran Horváth Takes Title
Eszter Békési also booked her berth for Singapore following a duel with Henrietta Fángli in the 200m breaststroke. Fangli – who won the 100m on the opening day – led by 0.45 at halfway before Békési flew past her rival with 37.90 third 50 to take a 1.07secs lead into the final turn. Békési came home in 2:29.05 to secure her worlds trip ahead of Fángli (2:29.70) and Laura Zsebok (2:30.46).
It was a seventh straight title for Békési who said: “This is my seventh championship in a row in the 200 and I feel that the burden on me is increasing year by year that I have to defend my lead. I’m not satisfied with the time, I felt that the preparation went better than this – I swam myself completely, but I’m still happy with the gold medal.”
Christopher Rothbauer of Austria got the touch in the men’s 200m breaststroke in 2:14.18 with Dávid Horváth the first Hungarian home in 2:17.42., 12 years after he first won the title.
Ugrai & Kovacs Clinnch Freestyle Gold
Panna Ugrai: Photo Courtesy: Hungarian Swimming Federation
Panna Ugrai and Nikolett Pádár fought a fine battle in the women’s 200 free with the former prevailing in 1:58.55 to 1:58.98 with Dora Molnar next home in 2:00.21.
Attila Kovacs led for all but the first 50m as he took the men’s title in 1:48.47 ahead of 1500 winner and Olympic 10k bronze medallist David Betlehem (1:48.81) and Koppany Zeta Kakuk (1:48.99) as Kristóf Rasovszky – who downed the Hungarian supersuited 400 free record on Thursday – finished fourth in 1:49.05.
Club relays rounded out the evening with Hubert Kós leading off the BVSC-ZUGLÓ men’s 4×1 squad in 48.76 with brother Oliver swimming the penultimate leg as they won in 3:17.68.
Petra Senánszky anchored the Debrecen quartet in 54.62 as they edged BVSC-ZUGLÓ in the women’s event in 3:48.26 to 3:48.43.