Kristóf Rasovszky won a gold medal and Dávid Betlehem a bronze medal in the open water swimmers' competition at the Paris Olympics.
The 27-year-old excellence from Veszprém - who was second in Tokyo three years ago - led almost the entire 10-kilometer race on Friday. The other Hungarian in the number, Dávid Betlehem, also finished third with excellent racing and a great hair.
Today, exactly 12 years after Éva Ristztov's victory in London, Rasovszky won her second gold in the open water discipline, and this is the 32nd Olympic first place for Hungarian swimming.
Just as twenty-four hours earlier for the women - among whom Fábián Bettina finished fifth with tactical racing - the III. The start and the finish line were at Sándor bridge, from here the competitors had to swim upstream first under the bridge of the Invalids, then under the bridge of the Alma and back, so six 1,666-meter laps and the finish line awaited them.
As could be expected, the medal contenders of the 29-person men's field - including the two Hungarians, the Germans, the defending champion Florian Wellbrock, as well as the Italian and French challengers - practically started in a separate group right after the start.
At the end of the first round, the top three in Tokyo, namely Wellbrock, Rasovszky and the Italian Gregorio Paltrinieri, Olympic champion in 2016 and silver medalist in Paris a few days ago, were in the lead.
In the second lap, Rasovszky, the reigning world champion of the track, took the lead and gained a few seconds advantage, so he was able to return to the lead even after the update. At the halfway point of the distance, the "Balaton shark" still swimming in a green cap was in first place, while Betlehem was in fourth place of the vulture chasing him.
Rasovszky started the last lap with an advantage of more than four seconds, Betlehem took the lead in fourth place. Rasovszky and the German Oliver Klemet pulled away from the others by 7 seconds when there were only 800 meters left.
Arriving at the finish line, Rasovszky was able to put one more shovel on him, his German opponent had no chance to overtake him and won a huge victory. Finally, the icing was put on the cake, because Betlehem reached the finish line in third place with a great hair, thus achieving what the two good friends had been waiting for for a long time, namely that both of them could step on the podium individually at a world competition.
Rasovszky won the fourth gold medal of the Hungarian delegation in Paris, and Betlehem won the fourth bronze, the balance is now 4 gold, 3 silver and 4 bronze.
MTI
