Szabo Gets Edge Over Milak & Kos To Take 50 Fly At Hungarian Nats

2025 HUNGARIAN NATIONAL SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Wednesday, April 9th – Saturday, April 12th
• Prelims at 9am local (3am ET)/Finals at 5pm local (11am ET)
• Csik Ferenc Swimming Pool, Kaposvar, Hungary
• LCM (50m)
• Meet Central
• SwimSwam Preview
• Day 1 Prelims Recap/Day 1 Finals Recap
• Day 2 Prelims Recap/Day 2 Finals Recap
• Day 3 Prelims Recap
• Entries/Live Results
• Livestream (Prelims Only)

The penultimate night of racing unfolded at the 2025 Hungarian National Swimming Championships with big guns Hubert Kos, Kristof Milak and more diving in for World Championships-qualifying times.

Kos and Milak sparred in the men’s 50m butterfly, where the former already nabbed a near-lifetime best of 23.63 this morning to earn the top seed.

In this evening’s final, however, Szebasztian Szabo stole the show, firing off a big-time effort of 23.17 to top the podium.

Milak settled for silver in 23.43, while Kos earned bronze in 23.53.

Szabo owns the national record in this event, courtesy of the 22.90 lifetime best he put on the books at the 2019 World Championships.

Milak has been as fast as 23.27 in his career, a result he established at last year’s edition of this competition. As for Kos, his 23.53 bronze medal-worthy outing was just .02 outside his 23.51 lifetime best logged at the 2024 European Championships.

Indiana’s NCAA champion Zalan Sarkany set himself apart from the men’s 400m IM field with a heats result of 4:19.35; however, the 21-year-old opted out of this evening’s main event.

In his stead, European Championships bronze medalist Gabor Zombori grabbed the gold, stopping the clock at a time of 4:13.75, the third-swiftest performance of his career.

His outing cleared the World Aquatics ‘A’ standard of 4:17.48, which is needed to qualify for the World Championships.

Runner-up Dominik Torok also made the grade, snagging silver in a mark of 4:15.12, the 2nd-best of his career. His PB remains at the 4:14.76 put up last year in Belgrade.

Balazs Hollo was right in the mix as well, hitting 4:15.40 to bag the bronze, just a hair off Torok’s time.

Additional Notes

• 16-year-old Vivien Jackl got it done for gold in the women’s 400m IM, producing a solid time of 4:40.70 to beat the field by over 4 seconds. Shane Tusup-trained Jackl owns a lifetime best of 4:34.96 from last year’s edition of this meet as a 15-year-old, a time which established a new European Junior Record.
• Attila Kovacs clocked a time of 1:48,47 to lead the men’s 200m free. David Betlehem was runner-up in 1:48.81 and Koppany Kakuk earned bronze in 1:48.89.
• The women’s 200m free saw Panna Ugrai notch an outing of 1:58.55 to get the edge over Nikolett Padar who settled for silver in 1:58.98 as the only other sub-2:00 performer.
• Visiting Austrian swimmer Christopher Rothbauer earned 200m breast gold in 2:14.18. The fastest Hungarian was David Horvath who posted 2:17.42.
• Henrietta Fangli already broke her own Hungarian national record en route to winning the women’s 100m breast, and she doubled up with a 200m breast silver this evening in 2:29.70. Eszter Bekesi got to the wall first, turning in a time of 2:29.05.
• Of note, on their respective men’s 4x100m free relays, Kos led off with a 48.76 opener and Milak served as anchor with a swift 47.80 split.