2023 GYOR OPEN
- Wednesday, December 13th – Saturday, December 16th
- Gyor, Hungary
- LCM (50m)
- Olympic Qualifying Event
- Start Lists/Results
- Livestream
The 2023 Gyor Open kicked off in Hungary today with the four-day competition representing a qualification opportunity for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, France.
Firing off a Paris-worthy time right off the bat was 20-year-old Zalan Sarkany.
Sarkany contested the men’s 1500m freestyle where he notched a winning effort of 14:53.19. The Arizona State Sun Devil scored the sole time of the field under the 15:00 barrier. Kristof Rasovszky was next to the wall in 15:01.98 and David Betlehem also landed on the podium in 15:15.52.
Entering this competition, Sarkany’s personal best in this 1500m rested at the 15:04.88 which rendered him the silver medalist at the Budapest stop of the World Aquatics Swiming World Cup. This outing, therefore, checked in as Sarkany’s new PB while also dipping under the World Aquatics Olympic Qualification Time of 15:00.99 needed for the Paris Olympics.
Sarkany now ranks as the #3 swimmer in the world on the season.
2023-2024 LCM Men 1500 Free
Wiffen
14:34.07
| 2 | Robert FINKE | USA | 14:40.38 | 06/23 |
| 3 | Gregorio PALTRINIERI | ITA | 14:41.38 | 11/28 |
| 4 | Kuzey Tuncelli | TUR | WJR 14:41.89 | 07/04 |
| 5 | Florian WELLBROCK | GER | 14:42.28 | 04/28 |
Sarkany is on a roll, having established a new Hungarian national record in the SCM 800 freestyle (7:34.41) at last month’s national short course championships.
Pac-12 champion Sarkany is not currently listed on Arizona State’s roster for the 2023-24 season, but the distance specialist told SwimSwam he plans on returning to Tempe for the spring semester.
Additional Day 1 Notes
- Viktoria Mihalyvari-Farkas topped the women’s 400m IM podium in a time of 4;40.58, falling about 2 seconds outside the Paris QT of 4:38.53. Boglarka Kapas scored silver in 4:41.50 while Anja Crevar also landed on the podium in 4:42.87.
- 35-year-old veteran David Verraszto took the men’s 400m IM in a result of 4:20.61. He has his work cut out for him to lower that type of performance down to the 4:12.50 needed for the Olympic Games.
Does he have the NCAA A cut with this swim in the mile? Or is there a rule about having to swim it on US soil or whatever?
I mean, I don’t think he will have any trouble getting it once he gets back to the US
I applied the NCAA allowed 2024 .975 conversion factor to Sarkany’s LCM time of 14:53.19 and came up with 14:30.83 which is well under the NCAA “A” cut of 14:37.31 and would have been 3rd in the NCAA championships last year.
This “average” conversion could become even faster considering Sarkany’s characteristics
Argee. Using the SwimSwam conversion I came up with 14:36+ The fact that he also holds the Hungarian 800 record in SCM means that he apparently knows how to do fast turns which is often a problem for Europeans. I observed him in two dual meets at the ASU pool last January and he broke the ASU record for 1000 yards in his first ASU competition swim.
Correction 14:26+ ! Finger hit the wrong key
That makes sense, there’s only a handful of Americans that can go 1453 LC right now.
Only two, Bobby Finke and Charlie Clark.