2020 HUNGARIAN SWIMMING C’SHIPS
- Tuesday, December 8th – Saturday, December 12th
- Ferenc Csik Swimming Pool, Kaposvár, Hungary
- Prelims – 5:00 pm local (11:00 am EST)/Finals – 9:30 am local (3:30 am EST)
- LCM (50m)
- Start Lists
- SwimSwam Preview
- Day 1 Prelims Recap/Day 1 Finals Recap
- Day 2 Prelims Recap/Day 2 Finals Recap
- Day 3 Prelims Recap/Day 3 Finals Recap
- Day 4 Prelims Recap
- Results
- Live Stream
The 2020 Hungarian Swimming Championships concluded this morning in Kaposvár with 20-year-old Kristof Milak producing a statement double on which to say goodbye to his roller coaster 2020.
As we’ve noted in each recap, these Hungarian Championships are an Olympic qualifying meet and have treated its timeline as such, mimicking the Tokyo 2020 timing of prelims at night and finals the following morning.
Final Day Highlights
Already at these Championships Milak took silver in the 200m fly and 50m fly, registering solid outings of 1:54.98 and 23.61, respectively. He also was the runner-up in the men’s 100m free with a mark of 49.20.
In this morning’s finals, Milak upgraded his hardware to double gold, with the man taking on the 100m fly and 200m free, claiming the top prize in each.
Although he says he’s still trying to shake ongoing fatigue and other symptoms related to his bout with coronavirus which rendered him out of ISL season, Milak was able to nail a lifetime best in his 1st event this morning of the men’s 200m free.
Entering this meet, Milak’s lifetime best in the 200m free was represented by the 1:46.90 he logged in March of last year. That checked in as his only sub-1:47 effort in the event over the course of his career.
Flash forward to tonight, however, and Milak managed to soar to the wall in a swift 1:46.68 to take the double.
Opening in 52.29 and closing in 54.61, Milak scored the only time in the 1:46-zone of the field, with the men’s 100m free victor here, Nandor Nemeth, touching in 1:47.40 for runner-up status.
With his 1:46.68 result, Milak now frog hops Nemeth to become the 3rd fastest Hungarian 200m freestyle of all-time.
All-Time Hungarian Men’s 200m Freestyle Performers
- Dominik Kozma – 1:45.54, 2017
- Laszlo Cseh – 1:45.78, 2009
- Kristof Milak – 1:46.68, 2020
- Nandor Nemeth – 1:46.79, 2017
Next in the 100m fly, Milak threw down a super solid time of 51.07 to get to the wall nearly a second ahead of prelims leader Szebasztian Szabo.
Szabo put up a prelims time last night of 51.85 but added slightly to earn silver this morning in 51.95.
For Milak, he split 23.98/27.09 to register the 4th fastest time of his career. The 200m fly World Record holder’s PB in this 1fly rests at the 50.62 he clocked to reap silver at the 2017 World Championships.
Of note, rounding out the top 3 of this men’s 100m fly was Hubert Kos, the 17-year-old who already claimed gold in the 200m IM in an Olympic-qualifying effort. Here Kos clocked 52.70 for a huge PB, obliterating his previous career-quickest of 53.54 from when he took silver at last year’s European Youth Olympic Festival.
On the women’s side this morning, Dalma Sebestyen won the 100m fly in a time of 1:00.19, just edging out Evelyn Verraszto by .01. However, Boglarka Kapas, battling illness throughout this meet and eventually revealing her Hashimoto’s disease diagnosis from this past summer, actually clocked the fastest time of 1:00.08 from winning the B-final.
The women’s breaststroke saw Anna Sztankovics get it done for gold in 31.65, while FGCU student-athlete Petra Halmai snagged silver in 31.82.
Ajna Kesely pulled a strong double this morning herself, registering a time of 2:00.13 in the 200m free and 16:34.43 in the 1500m free. The 19-year-old has already qualified for the 2020 Olympic Games across the 400m, 800m, and 1500m free events.
Here is a list of Hungarian swimmers who have achieved Olympic ‘A’ cuts overall since March 2019:
Eszter Békési – 200 m breast
Péter Bernek – 200m/400m IM
Bence Biczó – 200m fly
Richárd Bohus – 100m back
Katalin Burián – 200m back
László Cseh – 200m IM, 100m/200m fly
Gergely Gyurta – 400m IM, 1500m free
Balázs Holló – 400m IM
Katinka Hosszú – 200m/400m free, 100m/200m back, 100m/200m fly, 200m/400m IM
Zsuzsanna Jakabos – 200m fly
Ákos Kalmár – 1500m free
Boglárka Kapás – 400m/1500m free, 200m fly
Tamás Kenderesi – 200m fly
Ajna Késely – 400m/800m/1500m free
Hubert Kos – 200m IM
Dominik Kozma – 200m free
Maxim Lobanovszkij – 50m free
Viktória Mihályvári-Farkas – 1500m free
Kristóf Milák – 100m/200m free, 200m fly
Nándor Németh – 100m free
Szebasztián Szabó – 100m free, 100m fly
Liliána Szilágyi – 200m fly
Ádám Telegdy – 100m/200m back
Dávid Verrasztó – 400m IM
Gábor Zombori – 400m free
Gotta wonder whether anyone will EVER break 1:42 barrier.
Probably not unless Fina allows body suits back/and or polyurethane.
Nobody mentions the other Szilagyi – Gerda, she is 17 and killed it on the 50-100-200 back. It should make the World nervous as soon as Tokyo
This boi can go 50.2 in Tokyo
As one of my friend said 49 and 1:49 would be really nice.
Wait- I thought his muscles were gone from Covid?
There is a long thread on the impact Covid had on him with much fear and emoting
But now he drops a best time???
Good. Sounds like complete recovery
It probably shows that he has much more to come.
The infection of SARS-CoV-2 can often be quite severe. COVID is the name of the disease caused by the virus, but the virus itself is literally called “Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome” (I don’t feel like getting into why the WHO didn’t name the disease that).
All the information we have gotten from Milak indicates the virus took quite a toll on him and that he’s still feeling many of it’s effects. I see no reason for him to lie about that. His performance at this meet is rather a testament to his incredible work ethic and generational talent.
Milak didn’t swim a 200 free when he was in 1:50.7 200 fly shape. He’s probably capable of a 1:45 low or… Read more »
It didn’t take too big a toll if he did pb
But that doesn’t fit the narrative
I can confirm in the affirmative that “it toke a toll on him” is indeed part of the narrative about Kristof Milak told to us by Kristof Milak.
Some corrections.
The order of 200 free and 100 fly this morning was the opposite.
Milák has the A-cut time on 100 fly, but i think he does not have one on 100 free.
Szabó-Feltóthy Eszter is missing from the list. She has an A-cut time on 200 back.
Tkrisz I wrote about this. Milák 100/200 fly and 200 free. At the moment. We’re waiting for 400 free.
if Milak can go a 1:46.68 when he is “only” in 1:54.98 shape for the 200 fly, it’s hard not to think that his potential best time is not considerably faster. Even if his improvement is only half the four second differential it is in the fly, that would still make him a contender. With the current Olympic schedule, the 200 free and 200 fly overlap too much, and swimming six 200’s in three days is probably too much, as le Clos found out in ’16. Still, theoretically….
I think Milak would take it better as le clos cause he is much younger, doesn’t have to be at his absolute best to win the fly, also he won’t take it out like a maniac.
I think Milák would like to swim WR in 200 fly in the 1:49 territory which is on the other side of the Moon. Kozma and Németh will swim the 200 free individually.
But with Milák, and Holló, or Márton, or Zombori it can be a pretty good 4×200 free relay for Hungary. First they have to be in the first 12 to swim this relay.
This is the qualification status. I don’t believe this has changed since. Hungary is currently #3 for the wildcard spots.
https://swimswam.com/tokyo-2020-olympic-swimming-relay-qualification-status/#:~:text=The%20top%2012%20teams%20from,at%20the%20Olympics%20is%20secure.
Based on his 51.0 I think Milak might be training a bit more for the 100 like in 2017 to improve his maximum speed which did slip a little in 2019.
Yes, you’re right.
Milak wouldn’t be stupid enough to go all those rounds of 200 free b’s out from the start like LeClos did in Rio.
Milak’s a true prodigy. Hope he has a full recovery as soon as possible.
Think you mean Milak split 23.98/27.09 if he went 51.07.
Which is a mightily impressive time, even without considering how hard he was hit by COVID.