Hubert Kós competed in a long-course pool for the first time this year, but he did not let that faze him for a moment: he returned home from the Fort Lauderdale Open in the United States with a total of six medals.
The young Hungarian star kicked off his first long-course pool swimming competition of the year last Friday with a first and third-place finish. The Olympic 200-meter backstroke champion first competed in the 100-meter breaststroke finals on the second day of the Florida event. The 23-year-old swimmer is rarely seen in this event, but he finished third with a personal best time of 1:01.94.
Kós only had a few minutes to recover before the 50-meter backstroke final, but that did not stop him from triumphing as expected, ultimately winning with a time of 25.12 seconds.
On Thursday’s competition day, 20-year-old Nikolett Pádár also swam in two finals. The Hungarian swimmer finished fourth in the 400-meter freestyle (4:09.49)—surpassing the European Championship standard—and seventh in the 100-meter freestyle (54.53).
The next day, Kós claimed another victory, while Pádár once again swam a time that met the European Championship standard.
In his signature event—the 200-meter backstroke—Kós triumphed with a commanding lead of nearly four seconds, finishing in 1:56.37.
The 23-year-old talent also competed in the 200-meter freestyle final, where he finished second with a time of 1:47.29. This was a massive personal best – he had previously set his best time (1:49.61) while still a junior.
In the same event, Pádár competed in the women’s division. The 20-year-old swimmer finished sixth with a time of 1:57.27, thereby meeting the qualifying standard (1:58.05) set by national team coach Csaba Sós for the Summer European Championships.
On Sunday, the final day of the competition, Kós won two more medals: he took first place in the 100-meter backstroke and second place in the 200-meter medley. In the former event, the young talent triumphed with a time of 53.12 seconds, winning by a margin of more than two seconds.
Hubert Kós was also a contender in the 200-meter individual medley final. There, he faced off against French superstar Léon Marchand. In the end, the world record holder, who had won four golds at the Paris Games, won with a time of 1:57.28, while the Hungarian athlete finished just behind him, tied with American Carson Foster, with a time of 1:57.95.
The competition also saw a massive world record set. American Gretchen Walsh shaved nearly three-tenths of a second off her own previous record (54.60) in the women’s 100-meter butterfly, finishing in 54.33 seconds.
Nikolett Pádár also competed in the women’s 50-meter freestyle final; the young swimmer finished eighth with a time of 25.52 seconds.
Via MTI, Featured image: MTI/Illyés Tibor
