Originally, 28 was included in the Fukuoka World Cup pool swim team roster announced by head coach Chapa Suss at the beginning of June, but only two weeks later Christophe Melak announced he would not be traveling to Japan due to fatigue. In practice, this means that our only swimmer with a golden opportunity will miss the restroom, so it can be expected that the continuation of the impressive swimming successes since 2009 is not expected.
“It’s hard to argue with the fact that we don’t have swimmers with golden opportunities,” Csaba Sós admitted to our newspaper. – At the same time, the competition is always tough in the World Cup finals, so I will not underestimate winning a medal, regardless of whether we have a world champion in Fukuoka. Of course, gold brings everything, but there was already a case, for example, in 1978, when “only” world champions Andras Hargitay and Zoltan Verasto won a bronze medal at the World Cup, and that was also an impressive result.
The last World Cup was held in Melbourne in 2007, where Hungarian swimming was left without a gold medal. At that time, the youngest member of the current national team, Dora Molnar, who won European bronze in Rome last year, was only nine months old.
Since then, we’ve always had champions, in 2009 Dániel Gyurta and Katinka Hossz started the golden streak, which has continued, alongside them, László Cseh, Boglárka Kapás and Kristóf Milák until now. Among them, only Kapas would jump into the water in Fukuoka, but because of the brilliant Canadian swimmer Summer McIntosh, he could have no bloody hope of winning now – knowing the trials that have befallen him in recent years, his serious injuries, the tragic loss of his sister, and a medal of any color worth gold.
Who does Csaba Sós think has medal chances at the World Cup?
Csaba Sós certainly trusts Japan to win a medal, according to him, many of our swimmers have a realistic chance of standing on the podium, although this only happened to Milac, who won both golds in Budapest last year.
– If you look at the results of the Tokyo Olympics two years ago and last year’s World Cup in Budapest, you can see that we have many fourth places, and now these can be medals, – argued Csaba Sós. – Not to just speak in the air, we wouldn’t be too surprised if Szebasztián Szabó reached the podium in 50 breaststroke or Kapás in 200 butterfly. I don’t want to put a burden on him, but with Melak eliminated, Marton Richard, silver medalist at the European Championships in Rome, can also take an upset in the 200 butterfly, as well as Benedik Kovacs, who is also second in the European Championships, in the backstroke.
Hubert Kós should now become the main character
Hubert Koss is in a separate category, according to the leader, he is now our greatest chance of winning a medal. Last year’s 200 European Championships gold medalist has been training in the US since January under Michael Phelps’ former coach, Bob Bowman, and has had encouraging results in the 200 backstroke recently.
For him, Fukuoka could be the World Cup as he finally broke into the world scene. His talent has not yet been called into question, and now he has to step up as a champion – said the captain of Kós, who is happy to put the burden on the twenty-year-old swimmer, so he will take Milák’s place in the 4 x 100 relay leading to the final.
Theoretically, we can expect a lot from Viktória Mihályvári-Farkas, who won a gold medal in the 400 medley at the European Championships in Rome, but her results this year haven’t yet matched what she was capable of in her better days. – Vicky is still a young nineteen-year-old competitive swimmer frantically. He was already sixth at the Olympic Games in Tokyo, and I hope we will be able to see his pretty face again in Fukuoka, – said Chaba Sos.
Who can we support on the first day?
Swimming competitions in the pool start at dawn on Sunday, Hungarian time, with the qualifiers, and the first finals will be held from one o’clock in the afternoon. Kristof Rasovsky, already a silver medalist in Fukuoka in the 400 breaststroke in open water, ten kilometers and relay, Ajna Kesseli, who has been in great shape recently in the women’s race, Sebastian Szabo in the 50 butterfly and will start the men’s 4 x 100 relay among others.
Sunday’s Issues with Swimming and Hungarian Interests: Women’s 400m breaststroke (Ajna Késely, Bettina Fábian), women’s 100m butterfly (Zsuzsanna Jakabos), women’s 200m medley (Sebestyén Dalma), women’s 4x100m medley (Hungary), men’s 400m medley (Kristóf Rasovszky), men’s 100m breaststroke, men’s 50m butterfly (Sánázley) m Follow Fast (Hungary).
Cover photo: Christophe Melak and national team captain Xaba Souss (Photo: MTI/Anikó Kovács)
