Hungary enjoyed its strongest night yet at the European Aquatics Championships in Paris on Thursday, winning a historic first European title in the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay after Kristóf Milák had earlier taken 100m butterfly gold with a European record.
Hubert Kós, Szebasztián Szabó, Nándor Németh and Milák won the relay in 3:10.03 at the Olympic Aquatics Centre in Saint-Denis, breaking both Hungary’s national record and the European Championship record. Russian athletes under neutral colours finished just nine hundredths behind, while Croatia took bronze.
Hungary had qualified fifth from the morning heats before bringing Kós and Milák into the line-up for the final alongside Szabó and Németh. Milák proved to be the absolute winning man of the night; the 26-year-old Olympic champion decided the race on the final leg.
‘Milák proved to be the absolute winning man of the night’
Milák covered his 100 metres in 46.29 and overtook Russian anchor Egor Kornev in the closing stages. Kornev responded with a 46.32 split, but Hungary held on to win by 0.09 seconds. Milák’s split was faster than Pan Zhanle’s 46.40 individual world record, although relay splits are not eligible for individual records because swimmers other than the lead-off leg can use a flying start.
Earlier on Thursday, Milák defeated France’s Maxime Grousset in the 100m butterfly final, touching in 49.48 seconds. The time broke Grousset’s European record of 49.68 and left Milák just 0.03 seconds short of Caeleb Dressel’s 49.45 world record, making it the second-fastest swim in the event’s history.
Hungary’s success had already begun a day earlier with Kós in the 200m backstroke.
The Olympic and world champion won Wednesday’s final in 1:53.08 to claim his first European title over the distance. In the semi-final, Kós had set a European record of 1:52.30, coming within 0.38 seconds of Aaron Peirsol’s 1:51.92 world record, which has stood since 2009. Kós is currently reigning European, world and Olympic champion in 200m backstroke, while being only 23 years old.
The results have lifted Hungary to third in the Paris swimming medal table with three golds, one silver and two bronzes, behind only Great Britain and Italy after four days of competition.
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