Kristóf Rasovszky won a silver medal in the open water swimmers' 10 kilometer competition on Sunday.

With the results achieved at the Fukuoka Olympic Qualifying Aquatic World Championships, he officially earned the right to compete in the five-ring competition.

Kristóf Rasovszky, the excellence of the people of Veszprém - who triumphed in the 5 kilometers in Gwangju in 2019, becoming the first Hungarian world champion in the discipline - won the first Hungarian podium finish in the history of the Olympic distance.

The field of 69 swimmers had to complete 6 laps on the course set up in Momocsi Beach Park. After the start, the German Olympic champion Florian Wellbrock took the lead, closely followed by Rasovszky, the runner-up at the Tokyo Games.

"It turned out as I planned, I was able to go all the way at the beginning, I didn't even want to let this position out of my hands. In the end, I tried to tear down as many people as possible, then I put everything into the hair. They told me to be as hard as I could be, and I was as hard as no-holds-barred limits would allow

Rasovszky said.

"I wasn't extremely rough, I'm just 35 kilos heavier than him, I took advantage of that and swam so that he had less room. Apart from me, everyone has done this at every single World Cup so far, and just as no one has ever been banned before, I have not been excluded for this either."

- said the excellence from Veszprém, who officially redeemed his ticket for the Paris Olympics, even though this was not a matter of life, since with his 1,500 meter fast swimming time, he can already qualify for the Paris Games in open water.

Coach László Szokolai stated regarding Rasovszky: everything is going according to plan

"We wanted to set such a pace right from the start that this crowd couldn't stay together, the top ten would break up, and that happened.

In the end, Florian Wellbrock left, he couldn't be caught, so Kristóf had a big fight with Oliver Klemet at the end, whom he was able to eliminate using his body, with a straight shot," he said.

"Rasó remained calm throughout, a very routine competitor who has been at the top of the world for seven years. In the last two laps they managed to tear down the rivals, it was very tactical racing, we are really looking forward to the relay and

we hope this was not our first and last medal"

- said national team captain Gábor Gellért.

MTI

Featured image: MTI/Szilárd Koszticsák