Kos Wins Maiden Senior Title In 200IM At Hungarian Championships: Milak Concerned By Fatigue

Hubert Kos
Hubert Kos: Picture Courtesy: musz.hu

Hubert Kos won his first senior national title with a clear victory in the 200IM at the Hungarian Championships on Thursday morning.

Link to results

There was also welcome confirmation that Boglarka Kapas would continue to compete after being forced to withdraw minutes before the final of the 200 fly – in which she is world champion – with illness.

The Rio 2016 800 free bronze medallist revealed she had been diagnosed with Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis. 

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Kristof Milak – Photo Courtesy: Becca Wyant

However, world 200 fly record holder Kristof Milak expressed concern at the level of fatigue he is experiencing and was set to investigate further whether it was a result of having contracted Covid-19 and the subsequent effects on his physical state and training or another illness.

The 17-year-old Kos had produced a scorching PB of 1:58.31 in the heats on Tuesday evening with the event mirroring the schedule at the Olympics in Tokyo where finals will be held in the morning.

He returned on Thursday morning and had already put 1.15secs between him and the rest of the field at the first turn when he was the only man under 26secs in 24.92.

Kos then came home in 28.97 to stop the clock at 1:59.01 with Daniel Sos next to touch in 2:01.48.

Splits: 24.92/54.79/1:30.04/1:59.01

If Kos is the face of a new generation, Laszlo Cseh – at 35 more than twice his young adversary’s age – is an icon of the pool.

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Laszlo Cseh; Photo Courtesy: SIPA USA

Cseh has a creaking silverware cabinet with six Olympic, 13 world and 23 European medals, 14 of them gold.

It had not been a good meet for Cseh though and despite reaching the 200IM final, he withdrew and quit the championships.

Whether he will compete at a fifth Olympics is unclear, 17 years after winning his first Games medal with bronze in the 400IM in a race won by a certain Michael Phelps.

Kos had mixed emotions after the race with some regret that he had not dipped inside 1:58 on Wednesday evening which would have seen him replace Ilya Borodin as European junior record holder.

Borodin set the record of 1:58.00 at the Russian Championships in Kazan in October.

Kos told musz.hu:

“Unfortunately it didn’t work out, I felt like I couldn’t put the strength I planned into the speed anymore.

“Now 1: 59.01 so in the morning is not bad, but I can only rejoice that I won the championship.

“It went well to 150 now, or maybe only for a hundred, in any case we clearly need to be prepared to swim well in the morning as well.

“It is half a year until the Olympics, there will be both the semi-finals and the final in the morning, so I have to tune in to be able to swim the maximum then.

“When am I going to smile after a race? When I swim to the top of the world.”

Dalma Sebestyen took control on the breaststroke leg to win the women’s race in 2:13.22 with Zsuzsanna Jakabos second in 2:13.89.

Szebasztian Szabo won the men’s 50 fly in 23.19 ahead of Kristof Milak who clocked 23.61.

It was the second silver in as many days for Milak following the 200 fly where Tamas Kenderesi touched first.

Milak – who eclipsed Michael Phelps’ 200 fly world record at the 2019 World Championships in Gwangju – missed the entire ISL season after contracting the coronavirus.

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Kristof Milak: Photo Courtesy: Becca Wyant

While the 20-year-old is still experiencing the physical repercussions of Covid-19 and its effects on training, he also spoke of feeling fatigued and was looking to undergo tests.

He said:

“I actually competed at this national championship for myself, mainly to assess the damage caused by the Covid infection.

“In addition to really losing a lot of muscle, for example, my arms don’t even look like they looked last year.

“I feel the same as many other athletes who have gone through this disease that there are long-lasting side effects.

“And that’s not the same as missing out on weeks for something and then feeling untrained because it can help.

“It’s something else, some very strange fatigue, the specific physical causes of which have not been established so far, so I think I’m going to investigate again.

“Then if it’s really just being undertrained and nothing else then I calm down as it’s still better than trying to roll like hell while I’m having a mysterious illness.”

Monika Olle won the women’s race in 26.89.

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Ajna Kesely; Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

Balazs Hollo and Gabor Zombori fought a stroke-for-stroke duel in the men’s 400 free with the former coming out on top by 0.08 after eight lengths of the pool.

Zombori was ahead throughout although he couldn’t shake Hollo who went ahead on the penultimate length before stopping the clock at 3:49.44 to 3:49.52.

European silver medallist Ajna Kesely won the women’s race by more than three seconds in 4:13.11.

 


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