Nemeth Tops Milak In 200 Free, Szabo Puts Up 23.08 50 Fly At HUN Nats

2022 HUNGARIAN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS (HUN)

• Wednesday, April 20th – Saturday, April 23rd
• Debrecen Sports Swimming Pool
• LCM (50m)
• Start Lists
• SwimSwam Preview
• Day 1 Recap/Day 2 Recap
• Results
• Livestream

Although he cited having been ill for a week recently, Olympic champion Kristof Milak was back in the water for day 3 of the 2022 Hungarian Swimming Championships.

After having reaped 200m fly gold and 50m free silver last night, 22-year-old Milak took on the 200m free and 50m fly to continue his campaign here in Debrecen.

Milak was ultimately relegated to a pair of silvers on the evening, as it was fellow Olympian Nandor Nemeth‘s time to shine tonight in the men’s 200m free.

During tonight’s final, Nemeth beat Milak in this 2free event for the first time in 5 years, with the former hitting 1:47.51 to the latter’s 1:47.78, Milak opened quicker in 52.44 to Nemeth’s opener of 52.70 before they touched the wall less than .20 apart.

Both men have already qualified for this year’s World Championships in this 2free event.

After the race, 22-year-old Nemeth stated “That I won and beat Kristóf and became the national champion for the first time is just icing on the cake. ”

The women’s 200m free saw the reigning European Junior Champion in the event, Nikoletta Padar, grab gold in a swift 1:57.91. Opening in 57.70 and closing in 1:00.21, the 16-year-old’s time here blew away the 1:59.38 she put up in Rome last year for the aforementioned title.

Padar said post-race, “It was a very good swim, I really enjoyed it. I have made a lot of sacrifices for this result, thank you very much to my coach for helping me with this. The plan was to start the first hundred at 57.5 and make the third fifty the strongest. I listened to him.”

Hungary has already seen Boglarka Kapas and Zsuzsanna Jakabos nab World Championships-worthy times during the qualification window, although Padar’s result here beats out both Kapas’ 1:58.37 and Jakaobos’ 1:58.61.

Szebasztian Szabo made some noise in the men’s 50m fly, logging the #2 time in the world this season. The reigning European champion in this event logged an effort of 23.08, beating Milak who touched in 23.56.

Both men dipped under the World Championships qualification time of 23.63, with Szabo’s result coming within .12 of his own lifetime best of 22.96 from December 2020.

Szabo sits only behind world record holder Nicholas Santos in this season’s world rankings in this men’s 50m fly event.

Szabo said of his performance, “I always say it could be even better, but I think it will! That was enough for this competition, good in the first place, and even better for me to see where I stand.”

Iron Lady Katinka Hosszu followed up on her 200m fly victory from last night with a convincing win in the 400m IM this evening.

32-year-old Hosszu posted a time of 4:38.89 to top the field here by nearly 9 seconds, registering her fastest time of the season in the process.

Entering this meet, the multi-Olympic champion’s quickest thus far rested at the 4:39.19 she raced in Stockholm last month. She now ties Amerian Leah Smith in slot #7 on the world rankings for the season.

Hosszu recognized the fact she was slightly faster here than in Stockholm, saying, “I was very tired today. Even though I was tired, I managed to swim better than two weeks ago in Stockholm. ”

Additional Winners:

• David Horvath got it done for gold in the men’s 200m breast, registering a time of 2:13.58. But he wasn’t alone, as Gabor Zombori wound up at the wall with the same 2:13.58 result.
• The women’s 200m breast saw just one woman get under the 3:30 threshold in the form of Eszter Bekesi. Bekesi posted 2:28.07 for the win, well off her personal best of 2:25.49 from when she placed 5th at the 2019 FINA World Junior Championships. As of right now, Hungary has no World Championships qualifiers in the men’s or women’s 200m breaststroke.
• Dominika Varga topped the women’s 50m fly podium in a time of 27.07.
• The men’s 400m IM saw Balazs Hollo produce a time of 4:13.15 to top the podium tonight, getting to the wall just narrowly ahead of runner-up Hubert Kos and his silver medal-worthy 4:13.50. David Verraszto and Peter Bernek have both already hit qualifying times in this men’s 4IM event.