Hungarian gold is never enough - the weekend brought a medal winner

Hungarian gold medals rained down in the open water swimmers' relay race in Belgrade, and in the kayak-canoe European Championships in Szeged.

The Hungarian team composed of Mira Szimcsák, Bettina Fábián, Dávid Betlehem, and Kristóf Rasovszky won a gold medal in the relay race of open water swimmers at the European Aquatic Championships in Belgrade on Saturday.

In this competition, the Hungarian team triumphed for the first time at a major world competition.

The national team thus ended the competitions in the discipline with four podium places: previously Dávid Betlehem won a gold medal in 5 kilometers and a bronze medal in 10 kilometers, while Fábián Bettina came third in 5 kilometers.

The Hungarians jumped into the water as the number one favorites, since at the European Championships so far Betlehem won a gold medal in 5 kilometers and a bronze medal in 10 kilometers, Fábián was third in the shorter distance, and Rasovszky is the current world champion of the Olympic distance.

As usual, national team captain Gábor Gellért chose two girls and two boys, and unlike previous world competitions, he didn't have to worry this time, because Betlehem, swimming in third place, destroyed the field and then switched with Rasovszky, who had a 20-second lead, whose task was more or less to to "not get lost" and pull in the triumph. Of course, the Olympic silver medalist did it with confidence, thus achieving the success in sports history.

The Hungarian gold medals also rained down at the Szeged kayak-canoe European Championships 

Tamara Csipes and the couple Nádas and Tótka also won gold medals at the Szeged speed, para-kayak-canoe and SUP European championships. After them, the pair of Ágnes Kiss, Bianka Nagy and the women's kayak foursome also won gold medals.

Csipes Tamara won a gold medal in the 500 meter individual kayak at the Maty race.

The kayak duo of Bence Nádas and Sándor Tótka also came first in the 500 meters.

On Thursday, Tamara Csipes qualified for the final straight away from the preliminaries. In the final, she got the best start with one of her biggest competitors, the Danish Emma Jorgensen.

The two-time Olympic champion quickly jumped to the front of the field, after which the entire field only looked at his back.

At 250 meters, Csipes already led by half a boat's distance, and by the time he reached the finish line, he had already increased his advantage by a whole, reports the Hungarian Kayak-Canoe Association.

The duo of Bence Nádas and Sándor Tótka had the best start in the final, after which the Hungarian duo gradually moved away from the others. The Nádas easily maintained the advantage of half a boat's length at the halfway point, so they won the gold medal.

The number of Hungarian gold medals has doubled

Ágnes Kiss and Bianka Nagy, who won last week's qualifiers and shoot-off and made it to the European team and the Olympic team, competed twice on their home field at the Maty-éra as Szeged, and they thoroughly thanked the audience for their support.

Although the Spaniards rowing on the same side were the fastest at 500 meters, the Hungarians overtook them at 250 meters and had a clear lead at the start.

In the last meters, 18-year-old Kiss and 23-year-old Nagy got a little tired, but their advantage lasted until the finish, so the fans could celebrate another domestic gold medal.

Similar to this number, seven boats took to the water in the women's kayak fours race, including the Hungarian team consisting of Noémi Pupp, Tamara Csipes, Sára Fojt, and Dóra Alida Gazsó.

The domestic quartet distributed their strength well, after a cautious start, approaching the turn, their boat was already in the front, and in the end, they won a confident victory, with an advantage of about half a boat's length ahead of the Poles and Norwegians, which means that

the home team won a total of four gold medals in the morning program.

In the afternoon, four SUP finals and six finals of speed numbers not included in the five-ring program are included in the program.

MTI, Hungarian Kayak-Canoe Association

Featured image: Gold medalist Kristóf Rasovszky at the results announcement after the men's open water swimmers' 10-kilometer race at the Aquatic World Championships in Doha on February 4, 2024. MTI/István Derencsényi