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South African Matthew Sates’ dream
journey continued in Budapest: he bagged two golds on the opening day in the
Duna Arena and brought down one more junior World Record, this time in the 400m
free. Maria Ugolkova of Switzerland also enjoyed a fine evening by claiming two
titles. Many from the bests in Berlin went on winning here too, like Aussie
rockets Kylie Chalmers and Emma McKeon and the Netherlands’ World Cup
specalists Arno Kamminga and Kira Toussaint.
Matt Sates amazed many last weekend
as he completed the IM treble, earned four golds and a silver while beating two
junior WRs. Now the 18 years old is set for more since back in Berlin he had
opened his quest with a silver in the 400m free – now he touched in first and
smashed the junior WR (3:37.92).
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Image Source: Would you believe it?
Matt Sates after his junior WR-beater swim in Budapest - Photos: Istvan
Derencsenyi/Getty Images
It was a brilliant performance from
the youngster as he managed to outpace Danas Rapsys who had been first in
Berlin and ruled this event at many legs in the previous season. The Lithuanian
was as fast as on last Friday – but Sates geared up and shaved 2.3sec off from
his time. And he was back for more: in the session-closing final he retained
his 100m IM title, clocking almost identical time as in Berlin (57.77, was
57.78 a week ago).
“I mean, this a dream journey for me”
Sates said after his second win. “I did not expect that. Not the records.
Perhaps my coach did but he never told me. This FINA World Cup is fantastic,
I’m enjoying it so much. There are no big goals set, I just wish to go on and
enjoy it. And many thanks for all the attention I receive, it’s an honour to be
here and be interviewed.”
It’s yet to be seen how high Matt
Sates will get in the world of swimming – but one would barely find any humbler
competitor than this young blonde kid from South Africa.
Switzerland’s Maria Ugolkova was also
all smiles as he delivered a great double too, won the 200m fly first, then added
the 100m IM.
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Image Source: Shining like a (golden)
star: Maria Ugolkova had an awesome evening in the Duna Arena
“It’s an amazing feeling” she said.
“I swam personal bests, two new Swiss records – it’s fantastic. It’s also great
to swim in front of spectators at last, especially here, as the Hungarians can
create a great atmosphere.”
Though the roars were not as
overwhelming as it had been at the 2017 FINA World Championships, but the Duna
Arena became a noisy place when young Hubert Kos stunned the field of the 200m
back and won the race on lane 1. The 18 years old Hungarian admitted that he
had some special preparations before the series.
“Was a bit bored of swimming when I returned from the Olympics but I did not want to stop completely and spend too much time out of the pool” Kos said. “So we decided to play water polo on a daily basis in the warm-up pool, with the team-mates. Well, that’s a tough sport, I should tell you – and keep you in shape for sure. But I never expected this gold, I thought I may catch a medal but my coach prepared me for this race perfectly.”
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Image Source: A first-ever World Cup
win for young Hubert Kos – quite fittingly it happened in his home pool
There was one more surprise winner
from lane 1: Viktoria Gunes in the women’s 200m breast. Though it’s not that
surprising if we go back in time and recall the 2015 FINA World Junior Swimming
Championships in Singapore where the Turkish girl caused a huge sensation by
clocking a better time in this event than the winning effort at the FINA World
Champs in Kazan some weeks earlier. She was considered one of the greatest
prospects but ever since she had been fading a bit.
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Image Source: Re-approaching the top
circles: Viktoria Gunes is on her way (here to win the 200m breast)
“I had some tough years as the
transition from junior to senior level is extremely challenging” Gunes said. “I
had ups and downs, I wanted things too badly and had to learn some lesson. I
got a big help from a Hungarian coach Arpad Petrov, his support was invaluable
to be able to find the right perspective. Now I’m swimming for the joy and
stopped putting pressure on myself. I’m happy where I am now, and I try to go
step by step but without any huge expectations.”
The outcome of these two finals was a
rare exception as in the majority of the races the Berlin winners repeated
their respective triumphs and mostly the same duels were re-staged from a week
ago. Germany’s Isabelle Gose opened the session by winning the women’s 400m
free ahead of USA’s Cavan Gormsen. Now it was tighter, the gap had been 1.44 in
Berlin, now 0.89, though Gose did a clean job once more.
On the contrary, Netherlands’ Arno
Kamminga bested Germany’s Fabian Schwingelschogl in the men’s 100m breast with
a bigger margin, it was close in Berlin (0.11), now it grew to 0.58 as Kamminga
posted the best effort of the day (56.08), a 960-pointer to win with ease.
The women’s dash saw the same affair,
Aussie sprinting queen Emma McKeon speeded up once more, this time her victory
was even more convincing ahead of compatriot Madison Wilson (by 0.46sec) and
Sweden’s Michelle Coleman (the latter one also landed a silver in the 100m IM).
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Image Source: The eventual medallists
– Emma McKeon in the middle – are off to the start of their 23sec rush
The men’s final produced another
showdown between Aussie Olympic champion Kylie Chalmers and former World Cup
overall winner Vlad Morozov of Russia. Both came faster here, than last week,
Chalmers managed to go under 21sec (20.97) and beat Morozov by a fingernail
(0.07sec).
The Russian, who ruled the sprinting
events in the previous years in the World Cup, offered some insights on his
current status.
“When the pandemic hit in, I decided
to have a long break. I took six months off and it was great. You know, for
years, I travelled around the world, was part of each event, participated in
each World Cup leg… If I hadn’t done that, I think I might not be here. I
needed that break in order not to be burnt out completely.
“I’ve restarted trainings and let’s
say I’m in the middle of the process. I’ll see how far I can get at this year’s
short-course Europeans and Worlds and then I’ll decide how I’ll go on.”
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Image Source: World Cup King Vlad
Morozov is rebuilding himself after a break of six months
Dutchwoman Kira Toussaint also
retained her 50m back title from last week and USA’s Tom Shields did the same
in the 100m fly. This latter one was a great feat as a new challenger awaited
the American: while South African Chad le Clos had to sit out with a shoulder
injury, the hosts’ Olympic hero Kristof Milak made his first appearance after
the Tokyo Olympics where had snatched gold in the 200m fly and a silver in the
100m. Enjoying a longer break and returning the pool only three weeks ago,
under a new coach, Milak was no match for Shields this time, Shields’
underwater work was visibly much more effective, a big asset in short-course
and won with ease again.
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Image Source: Tom Shields shows his
appreciation to Kristof Milak after the 100m fly final
After the conclusion of the session,
the organisers staged a special event: a 4x25m free relay featuring
representatives of those frontline workers whose incredible efforts during the
extremely demanding months of the pandemic cannot be praised enough. Relays of
medical personnel (doctors and nurses), policemen, firefighters and teachers
were cheered loudly by the spectators – at the end, the police officers won the
race, ahead of one of the medical teams.
The runners-up included Professor
Bela Merkely, himself a Masters water polo player, who is also the rector of
the Semmelweiss Medical University which provides the medical services at this
World Cup event too. A proof that aquatics is a great source of all kind of
talents – which was also underlined at the opening ceremony, where three former
swimmers held speeches: FINA President Hussain al-Musallam, Minister for Sports
Tunde Szabo (Olympic silver medallist in Barcelona) and Hungarian Swimming
Association president Sandor Wladar (Olympic champion in Moscow).
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