2025 HUNGARIAN SC CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Wednesday, November 5th – Saturday, November 8th
- Debrecen, Hungary
- SCM (25m)
- SwimSwam Preview
- Live Results
The 2025 Hungarian Short Course Championships got underway tonight from Debrecen with the nation’s swimmers vying for potential slots on the roster for this year’s European Short Course Championships.
23-year-old Gabor Zombori got things started with a victory in the men’s 200m IM, delivering an outing of 1:55.58 to defeat the field dominantly.
Botond Kovacs was the next to touch nearly three seconds back in 1:58.42 while Austria’s Christian Giefing rounded out the podium in 1:58.49.
Zombori’s effort wasn’t too terribly far off his best-ever time of 1:54.93 from last year’s Short Course World Championships. That was clocked in the heats to place 13th overall in front of a home crowd.
Eszter Szabo-Feltothy got the job done on the women’s side, producing a winning 2IM time of 2:10.62.
That narrowly defeated Dalma Sebestyen who settled for silver just .12 later in 2:10.74. Laura Zsebok bagged the bronze in 2:11.17.
23-year-old Szabo-Feltothy’s outing represented a big-time new personal best, crushing her previous career-swiftest result of 2:11.76 from two years ago. She now bumps herself up from ranking 10th all-time among Hungarian women to check in at the 9th slot.
The men’s 100m free saw gold medalist Adam Jaszo dip under the 47-second barrier for the first time in his career.
Jaszo split 22.71/23.87 to beat the pack, posting a time of 46.58 in a tight battle with reigning national record holder Nandor Nemeth.
Nemeth was quicker on the front half, logging 22.37, but finished with a final 50m of 24.23. That rendered him the silver medalist by just .02, touching in 46.60. Levente Mozsarik was the bronze medalist tonight in 47.36.
Although he landed off the podium in 5th place, teenager Sebestyen Papp popped a new Hungarian Age Record for 17-year-olds.
Papp stopped the clock at 48.26 to shave .10 off the former benchmark of 48.36 Boldizsar Magda established in 2022.
But that wasn’t the only National Age Record to go down at the hands of Papp.
Racing in his second event of the evening, Papp secured silver in the men’s 50m back behind Jaszo.
Jaszo got to the wall first in 23.79 while Papp was a fingernail behind in 23.84. Zambori earned his second medal as well, collecting bronze in 24.04.
As for Papp, his 23.84 shaved .01 off the former age record for 17-year-olds of 23.85 Kristof Milak put on the books in 2017.
As a refresher, world record holder and Olympic champion Milak is not competing here. He hasn’t appeared to have raced since April’s National Championships, withdrawing from this year’s World Championships. According to the Hungarian Swimming Federation, Milak has only been training on land as of late.
A Hungarian National Age Record also bit the dust on the women’s side, courtesy of Napsugar Nagy in the 1500m freestyle.
Nagy registered a result of 16:06.81, good enough for silver behind national record holder Ajna Kesely. Nagy’s time improved upon the previous age record of 16:09.33 Viktoria Mihalyvari-Farkas notched six years ago.
Kesely, who opted out of competition over the summer due to an injury, garnered the gold in 16:04.08. Mihalyvari-Farkas rounded out the top three finishers in 16:13.60.
A pair of visiting Austrians captured the top two spots in the men’s 100m breaststroke, led by Olympian Christopher Rothbauer.
27-year-old Rothbauer nabbed gold in 58.02, a mark exactly half a second outside his best-ever 57.52 from 2019.
Countryman Valentin Bayer was next to the wall in 59.37 and Zombori earned his third medal of the evening with a bronze in 59.94.
Finally, 21-year-old Panna Ugrai represented another multi-medalist, landing on the podium in both the women’s 100m free and 50m back.
In the former, she clinched the title in a swift 53.17, a lifetime best by .12.
That held off Petra Senanszky who was also under the 54-second barrier in a time of 53.57 to keep Austria’s Marlene Kahler at bay. Kahler hit 55.20 for third place.
The 50m back saw Ugrai snag silver in 27.57, a full second behind victor Lora Fanni Komoroczy.
Komoroczy’s effort of 26.57 checked in as her 4th-best performance. Kincso Hanna Szabo captured bronze in 27.92.
Additional Notes
- National record holder Henrietta Fangli touched in 1:05.39 to dominate the women’s 100m breast race. Splitting 31.15/34.24, Fangli got to the wall well over a second ahead of her competitors. Laura Zsebok hit 1:07.04 for runner-up and Brigitta Vass of Romania collected bronze in 1:08.00. Fangli used to represent Romania herself until she switched national sporting citizenship to Hungary. This year the soon-to-be-24-year-old became Houston’s first All-American since 1986.
- David Betlehem was the clear winner of the men’s 1500m freestyle, topping the podium in a time of 14:27.39. That represented the second-best outing of his career, sitting only behind the 14:23.27 logged at the 2023 edition of these championships. Betlehem most recently won 10k gold at the Italy stop of the World Aquatics Open Water World Cup. Finishing 44th in that race was Kristof Rasovszky, who snagged the silver tonight in 14:58.62. Mate Karpati bagged 1500m free bronze in a result of 14:58.62, his first-ever foray under the 15:00 threshold. Entering this competition, Karpati’s career-best rested at the 15:07.61 put up last year.
Oh SCM, I was excited for a second
I didn’t even know Milak held the 50 back national age group record. An inadequate junior swimming fan I am.😀
In his last year as a junior (2018), Milak swam multiple events at Eurojunior Champs in Helsinki: 200 and 400 free, 100 back, 50,100 and 200 fly. He was fourth in the 100 back, but then, after 2019, he decided to skip backstroke events.
Nearly, his personal best in 50 SCM backstroke is from 2021 (23.08).
Yes, I considered LCM races
He started with backstroke.
Bethelem and Jaszo (and Nemeth) had the best swims by far.
Only swimmer under the LC WR was Betlehem I think.
This morning heat was the first time under the 47″ barrier for Adam Jaszo: 46.52 for him (0.06 faster than in the final), and there’s been a joint silver in the men’s 1500 free between Rasovszky and Karpati.
Interesting with a tie for 2nd in the 1500 and with Betlehem presumably 50m ahead that would indicate a 3 way battle into the 1450m turn while Betlehem was finishing his 1500, would have been pretty cool to see the closing stages of that race.