2021 BUDAPEST OPEN
- June 16th – 19th
- Spike Swimming Pool, Budapest, Hungary
- LCM (50m)
- Last-Chance Olympic Qualifying Competition
- Results
Action wrapped up in Hungary over the weekend as some of the nation’s top swimmers raced at the last-chance Olympic qualifying meet of the Budapest Open.
At the end of the day, a 38-strong Olympic roster was announced, including multi-Olympic medalist from Rio Katinka Hosszu, 35-year-old Laszlo Cseh and reigning 200m fly world record holder Kristof Milak among the contingent. You can see the entire lineup for Tokyo here.
Highlights from the Budapest Open included Nandor Nemeth reaping gold across the 50m, 100m and 200m freestyle events. The national record holder posted a time of 49.18 in his specialty of the 100m free while also nabbing 22.49 in the 50m and 1:48.14 in the 200m free.
Open water Olympic qualifier Kristof Rasovsky got it done for gold in the 1500m, topping Akos Kalmar in 15:15.62 to 15:16.13. The pair were the only men under 15:20 in the race.
South Africa’s Chad Le Clos was in the country for a training stint with Hosszu and threw down a few swims in the meet. Donning Hosszu’s swim cap, the 29-year-old punched a time of 52.01 in the men’s 100m fly, defeating Cseh’s 52.57 and Szebasztian Szabo‘s 53.00.
Le Clos split 24.63/27.38 to clock his fastest time of the season in this event.
In terms of his competing here in Hungary, Le Clos said, “It was a last-minute decision, Katinka said, don’t I want to train with her a bit in Hungary, and I said, why not? There are a number of wonderful memories in Hungary, the swimmers are highly valued here, so I feel very good here.
“Katinka and I visited the Puskás Arena as well, I was quite electrified, the energy flowed through, it was a huge experience for the Hungarian-Portuguese. And now I managed to get the best time of the season so far after it went pretty dramatically in the morning, so it was worth it to get started. ”
For Hosszu’s part, the versatile star was merely training through this meet, dabbling in a few events, including the 200m free where she placed 3rd in 2:01.12.
“We train hard, I only tested myself a little bit, with no particular goal,” she said.
Chad Le Clos in Katinka Hosszu‘s cap, courtesy of Hungarian Swimming’s Instagram.
His friendship with Cseh is a sweet story. When he raised Laszlo’s hand after their 1-2 in the 200 fly in 2017 Budapest, was an unforgettable moment in sport history
I don’t think he can medal at this olympics
His best shot is 200 fly. Imagine how much faster he wouldve been in his prime had he not gone out too fast all the time and kept his head in line rather than look around constantly.
He barely medaled in the last one