Zsuzsanna Jakobos and Peter Bernek took home 400 IM titles to highlight the eighth and final day of the 2015 Hungarian Nationals.
Jakobos benefited from the absence of 2015 world leader Katinka Hosszu, who pulled out of the meet after one day, citing the meet’s lack of a warmdown pool among other things.
That left Jakobos as the top threat in the 400 IM, and she powered away with the win on the final day in 4:42.23, with Reka Gyorgy just about a second and a half behind with a 4:43.67.
Bernek, meanwhile, won a tough two-man battle for the men’s 400 IM title, touching out youngster Benjamin Gratz. Bernek built up a substantial lead after the first two strokes, but Gratz came back in a big way on breaststroke, pulling into a dead-even tie with Bernek at the 300 wall. But Bernek has just enough to eke out the win on freestyle, 4:16.24 to 4:16.47.
Italy’s Niccolo Bonacchi picked up the men’s 50 back win, going 25.35 to beat Hungary’s Richard Bohus by four tenths.
It was a great day for Italian sprinters, with Silvia di Pietro picking up a win of her own in the 50 free. Di Pietro was 25.10 to deny Jakobos a second win.
The women’s 50 breast, though, was all Hungary, with Dalma Sebestyen going 32.22 and barely touching out countrywomen Anna Sztankovics (32.28) and Evelyn Verraszto (32.29).
At the far other end of the distance spectrum was the men’s 1500 free, where another Italian took home a win. Samuel Pizzetti paced the field, going 15:24.45 to win by over 15 seconds.
