Iron Lady Katinka Hosszu Powers Way to 4 Titles in Bergen

BERGEN, Norway, May 24. A day after making her way into five finals, the Hungarian Iron Lady Katinka Hosszu collected three titles during short course competition at the Bergen Swim Festival. Hosszu is the most prolific prizeswimmer in the history of the sport, and continues to display that ability at meets such as the Bergen. Tonight wasn’t without controversy as Hosszu was disqualified in the 200 back.

A day after posting a 1:54.67 in prelims of the women’s 200-meter freestyle, Hosszu smashed the field in the finale with a 1:54.06. That’s still well off her top-end speed of a 1:52.32 from last year that ranked third, but was more than enough for the win tonight. Michelle Coleman raced to second in 1:55.93 in the finale, while Pernille Blume picked up third-place honors in 1:57.14.

Hosszu had a tougher time for her second win as she clipped Denmark backstroke star Mie Nielsen for the women’s 100-meter backstroke title. Hosszu clocked in with a 57.73 for the win, while Nielsen tracked down a 57.96 to take second. Hosszu and Nielsen flipped at about the same time 28.04 to 28.05, but Hosszu had a 29.69 for her back half, while Nielsen turned in a 29.91. It was truly a two-person race as Sarah Bro earned third-place honors in 1:00.89.

The 50-meter events featured a three-round knockout system tonight with each round taking place immediately after the previous round. Hosszu had her first miss of the day with a 26.13 in the women’s 50-meter free after setting the Hungarian record with a 24.71 yesterday. She fell out of the knockouts in the first round.

Jeanette Ottesen, who ranked sixth in the world last year with a 23.88 from the Berlin World Cup, powered her way to victory in the women’s 50-meter free finale with a 24.36. Michelle Coleman touched second in 24.36, while Pernille Blume touched third in the three-person finale with a 25.17. On the men’s side of the 50-meter free, Ralf Tribuntsov won the knockouts with a 23.76, while Niksja Stojkovski touched second in 24.09. Daniel Steen Andersen claimed third in 24.73.

Hosszu got back into the win column in one of her signature events — the women’s 200-meter fly. She blasted a winning time of 2:15.57. She was much faster in prelims this morning with a 2:11.25. Line Lovberg placed second in 2:17.27 with Klara Frakas earning third in 2:18.31.

She followed that up with another victory, this time in the women’s 100-meter IM. Hosszu clocked a 59.04 — the only sub-1:00 of the day aside from her 59.70 in prelims. Mie Nielsen finished second in with a 1:01.17, while Julie Levisen took third in 1:04.17.

Jeanette Ottesen took home the women’s 50-meter fly knockouts title with a 25.52 in the final round, while Hosszu took second in 27.12 and Monica Johannessen finished third in 27.59. That’s a significant time for Ottesen, considering she led the world last year with a 24.87 at the Eindhoven World Cup. It would have ranked in the top 10 by itself, and Ottesen isn’t even in championship form yet. Daniel Steen Andersen picked up the men’s 50-meter fly knockout trophy with a 24.73. Viktor Bromer (24.92) and Alexander Nystrom (25.68) took second and third.

The big controversy of the night came during what would have been Hosszu’s fourth win of the night. After clocking a 2:05.84 in the women’s 200-meter back, she was disqualified for rotating to her stomach during her underwater kick. Official results still have yet to register the DQ, but Hosszu and her husband-manager took to Twitter to voice their thoughts on the issue.


Michelle Coleman raced in with a second-place time of 2:06.80, which wound up being the win, while Sarah Bro finished a distant third in 2:09.17 that moved to second after the DQ.

In one of the most stacked finales of the night, Rikke Moller Pedersen won the women’s 100-meter breast in 1:05.50 with Jennie Johansson a closed second in 1:05.94. Louise Dalgaard placed third in 1:09.78, while Hosszu wound up sixth in 1:12.72 after clocking a 1:07.23 in prelims.

In an exciting finish, Daniel Steen Andersen touched out Daniel Skaaning, 1:48.03 to 1:48.09, for the men’s 200-meter freestyle title. Skaaning nearly made up the distance with a final split of 54.05, but it was too little too late after letting Andersen get out front. Simon Sjodin also made a run at the title, but finished just off the lead pace with a third-place time of 1:48.60.

Ralf Tribuntsov crushed his competition in the men’s 100-meter back with a 51.79 for the win. Markus Lie took second in 54.23 with Magnus Jakupsson finishing third in 54.28. Tribuntsov went out fast in 24.73, putting away the field before he even hit the backhalf as he was up by more than a second just halfway through the race. He finished strong in 27.06 for the easy win.

Viktor Bromer took home the men’s 200-meter fly title in 1:55.78, just a few seconds off his 18th-ranked 1:53.56 season best from a year ago. Simon Sjodin finished second in 1:58.43, while Sindri Jakobsson touched third in 1:59.23. Just one other swimmer broke 2:00 with Zsombor Szana taking fourth in 1:59.28.

Martti Aljand tracked down the men’ 100-meter IM crown in 54.02 with Daniel Skaaning finishing second in 55.47. Markus Lie snared third in the sprint medley in 56.31. Tribuntsov kept on rolling here today on the men’s side of the ledger as he topped the men’s 200-meter back in 1:58.05. Simon Sjodin took second in 2:00.53 with Magnus Jakupsson earning third in 2:01.39.

Daniel Gyurta closed the night with a come-from-behind win in the men’s 100-meter breast. He clocked a 58.65 as he overtook Martti Aljand (58.74) for the victory. Aljand had gone out fast with a 27.72 against Gyurta’s 27.90, but Gyurta had more in the tank coming home in 30.75 against Aljand’s 31.02. Bram Dekker took third in the finale with a 1:01.01.

Full results to come.

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