2021 FINA WORLD CUP STOP #2 – BUDAPEST
- Thursday, October 7th – Saturday, October 9th
- Duna Arena, Budapest, Hungary
- SCM (25m)
- SwimSwam Preview
- Day 1 Start Lists
- Results
Day 1 Prelims Highlights
Stop #2 of the 2021 FINA World Cup Series got underway this morning in Budapest, with host nation swimmer Kristof Milak making his presence known from the get-go.
Kicking off his campaign in the men’s 100m fly, 21-year-old casually ripped a morning swim of 50.60 to lead the field, one which includes American Tom Shields and Aussie Matt Temple. The pair will flank the Hungarian this evening, having clocked times of 51.02 and 51.41, respectively.
For Milak, he opened in 23.35 and closed in 27.25 to snare lane 4 for this evening’s final. His time of 50.60 is just off his own lifetime best of 50.28 from 2 years ago and is within striking distance of Olympic icon Laszlo Cseh‘s national record of 49.33 from 2015.
Of note, South African Chad Le Clos was not in the field, despite having been on the start lists.
Young gun Matt Sates of South Africa was also in the water this morning, racking up finals slots in the 400m free and 100m IM. In the former, he posted a morning swim of 3:45.47 in the former and 53.67 in the latter.
The top-seeded men’s 400m freestyler is Austrian ace Felix Auboeck, who landed lane 4 in 3:43.01, just .08 ahead of Dutchman Luc Kroon‘s 3:43.09. The top-seeded 100m IMer on the morning for the men is represented by Slovak Adam Halas who just produced a new national record of 53.57.
For the women, American Cavan Gormsen led the 400m freestyle pack, but just barely, as the top 3 seeds are all within .4 of one another. Gormsen, just 16 years of age, hit 4:04.46 while Germany’s Isabel Gose was next in line in 4:04.49. Another American in 16-year-old Erin Gemmell was right there as well in 4:04.86.
Of note, the 4th-seeded swimmer Katja Fain earned a new Slovak record in the event with her heats swim of 4:05.22.
Aussie Olympic golden girl Emma McKeon did her thing in the 50m freestyle, capturing the top spot in 23.69, as teammate Kyle Chalmers bowed out of the 100m fly once again, but did take the 2nd seed in the 50m free in 21.29 to Dutch speedster Jeese Puts‘ 21.04.
Again, as in one of the previous posts about the WC: Katja Fain is a Slovenian, not a Slovak, swimmer
(that’s a difference). Similarly, for example, for those, interested in cycling: Primož Roglič and
Tadej Pogačar are Slovenians, whereas Peter Sagan is a Slovak.
Milak’s SC 100 fly PB is still slower than his LC 100 fly PB. And his 200 fly SC PB is only 0.75s faster than the LC one. Doesn’t seem to be a good short course swimmer.
He’s still good, like his 200 is better than like everyone out there, just not as good as when he is swimming long course.
Yes short course is not his strength. He already said that he hated SC. However this year he’s gonna do tons of SC, the World Cup, the European SC championships, the Hungarian SC nationals, and maybe the Worlds SC in Abu Dhabi. Anyway if he wants to sprint and turn better, SC is a good chance to learn.
Also milak is like not tapered at all. He probably did like 20x100s fly for cool down after this.
Honestly wouldn’t be surprised if he asked MP for a couple sets that he did 15-20 years ago
The times in the third paragraph got me tripping
Milak 47.6 tonight new WR
From 50.6 to 47.6 — I think not. Dressel’s WR (47.78) will stand easily.
This aged well
Indeed it did. 🙂
Congrats to Tom Shields on a great win over Milak.
Love how you said 2nd guy under 49 then edited it out cuz you forgot le clos lol
Mistakes happen; correcting them is what matters. (Besides, le Clos has made it kind of easy to forget about him this past year.)
Look at le clos insta said he had an injry or fall or something
“Resting for ISL” you mean.. jk
Milak may just be 48.9 in Paris depending on his potentially expanded schedule, with Caelebs known workload he’ll need the perfect race to keep up. Already counting down for next summer
Tokyo was Milak’s FIRST EVER breaking of 50 seconds in long course. If — a big if — Milak can get down to 48.9, who’s to say Dressel can’t lower his 49.45 WR (despite a long turn) to 48.9 or below.
If dressel doesn’t fix his turns and finish, Milak will take gold
Turns are more of a problem for Milak, as demonstrated in his short course loss to Shields today.
Yeah, but Milak swam a 50.6 scm 😆