Despite an illness having ruined his preparations, Kristof Milak was the star of the Hungarian nationals held last week in Debrecen. The Olympic and world champion claimed three gold and three silver medals, all in individual events, clocked No. 1 time in the 200m fly and No. 2 in the 100m in the 2022 world ranks.
For the 8th time Debrecen, the second largest city of Hungary staged the swimming nationals (the venue will also be part of the show at the FINA World Championships, water polo prelims will be played here). Four years ago, Kristof Milak made his breakthrough performance in the 200m fly here in this pool in this event when he grabbed his first senior title and came as close as 0.01sec to the European record (1:52.70), held by Laszlo Cseh at that time. Soon it turned out that the then-18-years old youngster had much more to show in this event – in 2019 he crashed Michael Phelps’ mighty WR at the FINA World Championships in Gwangju and last year he added three more monster-swims which topped the GOAT’s best-ever effort from 2009 in the all-time ranks.
A year ago, Milak came up with a terrifying 1:51.40 at the nationals in Budapest, in the final held in the morning (to follow the Tokyo schedule). That was followed by a 1:51.10 at the Europeans and a 1:51.25 at the Olympics, where he messed up his warm-up and after the race he became an instant meme by looking at the scoreboard stone-faced as he failed to better his own WR. He clocked ‘only’ an Olympic record, so by his own standards there was nothing to cheer for, not even his first Olympic gold…
Times are changing – he was all smiles after winning his pet event in 1:53.88 last week in Debrecen. He usually swims way faster even in the prelims but as he put it, “in the given circumstances” he was happy with the time as he was far from his desired form. “My preps went pretty well until I got an ugly illness, had high fever during the entire last week in the training camp in Tenerife and that dismantled me completely. Needed a week to regain some strength, so coming here I had no time targets in mind, rather a goal to learn more on myself, what I’m capable of achieving in this shape.”
Well, it was still good for a world No. 1 rank – and on the last day of the champs he flew to a 51.03 win in the 100m fly which is the second-best effort so far this season. “I think it’s all good, I’m absolutely satisfied how this competition unfolded. Now I go back to training to be in really top shape for the Worlds. Obviously, it’s fantastic to race at home again, in front of several thousands of our fans so I want to show something special to them and also for my rivals, as a kind of special welcome from my side” he said with a huge smile on his face. He also won the 100m free and came runner-up in the 200m free, and in both dash events in free and fly.
Times are changing – he was all smiles after winning his pet event in 1:53.88 last week in Debrecen. He usually swims way faster even in the prelims but as he put it, “in the given circumstances” he was happy with the time as he was far from his desired form. “My preps went pretty well until I got an ugly illness, had high fever during the entire last week in the training camp in Tenerife and that dismantled me completely. Needed a week to regain some strength, so coming here I had no time targets in mind, rather a goal to learn more on myself, what I’m capable of achieving in this shape.”
Well, it was still good for a world No. 1 rank – and on the last day of the champs he flew to a 51.03 win in the 100m fly which is the second-best effort so far this season. “I think it’s all good, I’m absolutely satisfied how this competition unfolded. Now I go back to training to be in really top shape for the Worlds. Obviously, it’s fantastic to race at home again, in front of several thousands of our fans so I want to show something special to them and also for my rivals, as a kind of special welcome from my side” he said with a huge smile on his face. He also won the 100m free and came runner-up in the 200m free, and in both dash events in free and fly.
The latter two went to Szebasztian Szabo who kept his top gear from last year when he had won the long- and the short-course Europeans alike in the 50m fly, and also delivered a world-rank leading time in Debrecen. Szabo and Milak can lead the Magyars’ charge in June in the Duna Arena – as they did at the Europeans last year.
Hungary’s other medallist from Tokyo, Kristof Rasovszky – silver in the 10km marathon – showed tremendous improvement in the longer pool events, brushed off 10sec from his PB in the 1500m, went under the 15min mark for the first time in his career and added the 400m and 800m titles to his treasury. “I think this is a very good sign ahead of the Worlds” Rasovszky, overall winner of the 2021 FINA Marathon Swimming World Series, said. “Among the top guys, I’m considered the slowest sprinter, but it seems I’m gaining much better speed so I’m really optimistic before the big home event. This 1500m is a sharp message for the relay where I’m the anchor man so I need to keep up with the other greats who are faster than me in the pool.”
Among the ladies, Ajna Kesely copied Rasovszky’s treble (golds in the 400-800-1500m), though she is confined to the pool and under her new coach – former short-course World champion Peter Bernek – she began to be reminiscent of her old self when she was just fractions of a second off the podium in Gwangju in the 400m and medalled frequently at the Europeans.
As for Hungary’s other leading ladies, the two world champions from Gwangju 2019 do not have the title-defence in mind – at least not admittedly. Katinka Hosszu’s well-established preparation methods were rocked by the pandemic, and she were not able to find back to the winning track for Tokyo. The 9-time world champion – and triple Olympic gold medallist in Rio – forced herself back to the brutal workloads, however, in weeks she turns 33 and she is aware that her heydays are over. “I will be no longer the same Katinka which amassed events on a single racing day – I’m still torturing myself, but I know that I won’t get really close to my world records any more. I have my 100-medal goal set and I just want to achieve that, perhaps I can get one or two podiums at the Worlds” she said.
Just to give you some clarity on those 100 medals: Katinka came up with this new target earlier this year – she claimed 96 so far at the majors (Olmpics, World and Europeans, both l/c and s/c) and she wants to be the first one in history who surpasses the 100-medal milestone. Four more to go – at the Worlds she swims the medleys (she holds a unique record of making the IM double at four consecutive editions from 2013 to 2019), and the 200m fly.
Talking about the 200m fly, here Boglarka Kapas is the reigning world champion, she earned a stunning coming-from-behind victory in Gwangju – but she fell shy of the podium in Tokyo, missed the bronze by a tiny margin. However, now her participation is in doubt in Budapest as she struggles with a chronic lower-back pain. “It was so agonising for a while that I began to deal with quitting seriously” she said in Debrecen where she swam only a couple of relays. “Now it’s better, I could restart my trainings though I’m in a shape where I should have been in February, so I’ll decide later if I test myself at the Worlds.”
After the conclusion of the event, head coach Csaba Sos announced a 32-member strong team for the pool events, while the open water team is to feature seven athletes. The list definitely reflects on a generation change: the line-up features no less than 13 World Championship rookies. Among them there is a handful of really talented youngsters who may raise some eyebrows in June, namely the new wave of medley swimmers Balazs Hollo and Hubert Kos (trying to maintain the traditions, kept by Laszlo Cseh and David Verraszto till now), and among the women Viktoria Mihalyvari-Farkas (already a European medallist in the 400m IM and an Olympic finalist), plus a great prodigy in the 200m free Nikolett Padar, who was named the female swimmer of the meet at the nationals (Milak was the best male).
There will be a lot of Hungarians to cheer for – and even though the Duna Arena can hold 5,000 spectators in legacy mood (accommodated 12,000 in 2017), you’d better be ready for some noise as the local fans can create an electrifying atmosphere anyway!
