Milak Posts 48.71 100 Free, Hosszu Narrowly Defeated In 200 IM At Hungary Nats

2022 HUNGARIAN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS (HUN)

• Wednesday, April 20th – Saturday, April 23rd
• Debrecen Sports Swimming Pool
• LCM (50m)
• Start Lists
• SwimSwam Preview
• Results
• Livestream

The 2022 Hungarian National Championships kicked off today from Debrecen with world record holders Kristof Milak and Katinka Hosszu both in the pool.

First, for Milak, the 200m fly Olympic champion took the 100m freestyle event this evening, posting a solid 48.71 to capture the gold. Splitting 23.57/25.14, Milak was able to hold on to get the edge over runner-up Nandor Nemeth who touched in 48.87.

With Milak and Nemeth as the only sub-49 second swimmers in the field, it was Szebasztian Szabo who rounded out the top 3 in 49.07.

FINA has set the ‘A’ standard for the 2022 World Championships in Budapest at a mark of 48.77, a time under which both Milak and Nemeth have already been under during the qualification window.

Nemeth punched a super quick 47.81 in the semi-finals of last year’s Olympic Games before settling for 8th place overall in a slower 48.10. Milak earned a mark of 48.00 at these same Championships last year, giving him a FINA ‘A’ cut as well.

Hosszu was narrowly beaten in the women’s 200m IM this evening, as Dalma Sebestyen got her hand on the wall just .01 ahead of the multi-Olympic gold medalist. Sebestyén touched in 02:12.20 to Hosszu’s 2:12.21.

Hosszu led at the halfway mark with a 100m split of 1:01.14 to Sebestyen’s 1:03.05 but the latter caught up, sealing the deal in a 30.80 final 50m to Hosszu’s 31.66.

A time of 2:12.98 has been set forth by FINA for the ‘A’ cut for Budapest, which means both of these 2IM swims qualify, although Hosszu’s 2:09.70 from Tokyo was already on the qualified times list. Sebestyen’s 2:11.87 from the European Championships has also been faster than what she produced tonight.

World Junior Record holder in the men’s 200m IM Hubert Kos took on that event tonight, registering a swift 1:57.64 to beat the field by over a second. Kos set the WJR at the 1:56.99 he posted at last year’s European Championships in the semi-finals. The Hungarian ultimately placed 5th in 1:58.12 there in Budapest.

Additional Winners:

• Nikolett Padar hit a time of 54.85 to take the women’s 100m freestyle.
• Austria’s Valentin Bayer was the men’s 100m breast winner in a mark of 1:00.64.
• Open water talent Kristof Rasovsky sneaked into the wall just .05 ahead ov visiting Vietnamese swimmer Huy Hoang Nguyen. The former hit 3:49.01 to the latter’s 3:49.06.
• The women’s 400m free saw Ajna Kesely get it done in 4:07.74 in another close race. Kesely was nearly caught by Bettina Fabian, who hit 4:07.81 as runner-up. Both women easily clear the FINA ‘A’ cut of 4:10.57 needed for Worlds.