Kristof Milak Concludes Hungarian Championships With 50.80 100 Fly; Benedek Kovacs Shines in 200 Back

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Kristof Milak -- Photo Courtesy: Giorgio Scala / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto

Kristof Milak Concludes Hungarian Championships With 50.80 100 Fly; Benedek Kovacs Shines in 200 Back

Having already secured wins in the 100 freestyle, 200 butterfly and 200 freestyle, Hungarian superstar Kristof Milak finished off his national championships with a strong effort in the 100 butterfly. Milak went out in 23.82 to open up a slight lead over Richard Marton, and he closed in 26.98 to hit the wall in 50.80. Marton ended up second in 51.70.

The time moves Milak, the reigning world champion in the event, into a tie for second in the world in the early going of 2023, while Marton squeezed into the world top-10. Milak joined American Shaine Casas at 50.80, with Canada’s Josh Liendo sitting first at 50.36. Milak was just over a second off his best time, the European record of 49.68 he swam in winning silver behind Caeleb Dressel at the Tokyo Olympics. Milak sits behind only Dressel in the all-time rankings, with only two other men (Michael Phelps and Milorad Cavic) having ever broken 50.

In the men’s 200 backstroke, Benedek Kovacs led wire-to-wire to take the win in 1:56.11. That marked moved Kovacs ahead of world champion Ryan Murphy for the second-best time in the world this year, and the only man ahead of him is another Hungarian, Hubert Kos. The Arizona State University-trained Kos went 1:55.95 to win the event at the TYR Pro Swim Series in Westmont, Ill., last week.

Kovacs was eighth in this event at the World Championships last year while countryman Adam Telegdy placed sixth. Telegdy ended up second Saturday in 1:57.35, which left him just shy of the world top-10, and third went to Alex Kovats in 1:58.24, with that time breaking Peter Bernek’s Hungarian 17-year-old record (1:58.66).

Eszter Szabo-Feltothy won the women’s 200 back in 2:08.85, moving to eighth in the world this year. Other women’s winners included Panna Ugrai in the 100 fly (59.00) and Dalma Sebestyen in the 50 breaststroke (31.26), while Oliver Gal won the men’s 50 breast in 28.32.

Results

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