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Home High As Hosszu Leads HUN 1-2
Aug 15, 2010 - Craig Lord
European Championships, Budapest, day 7 finals:
Women 200m butterfly
Katinka Hosszu, 200m medley champion here earlier this week, led another Hungarian 1-2, in 2:06.71, with Zsuzsanna Jakabos taking silver in 2:07.06, bronze for Britain in 2:07.54 for Ellen Gandy. That made it the tightest podium in the history of the European event. Gandy, who described herself as "totally unrested" from training that she will fly back to Australia for in the morning, turned 19 today - and was all smiles, as were the Hungarians ahead of her, of course.
The race was an across-the-pool thriller, Hosszu in 4, Jakabos in 5, Gandy in 3 and Mireia Belmonte (ESP) always in the fight out in lane 8. At half-way Jakabos set the pace at 1:01.52, Hosszu almost a second back with Gandy, the Brit 6th on 1:02.35. The crowd had long been on its feet as Jakabos turned first at the last turn, on 1:34.00, Belmote on 1:34.66, Gandy on 1:34.70 and Hosszu just 0.09sec further away.
Hosszu, coached by Dave Salo at Trojan in California, surged into her stroke out of the turn, the hunt on, with Gandy responding and piling on the pressure the other side of her. Splits of 31.92 for Hosszu, 33.06 for Jakabos, 32.84 for Gandy and 33.64 for Belmonte decided the argument, much to the delight of a fantastic and fanatical crowd.
Hosszu said: "At the 150m turn I put everything I had into it. I believed I could catch Zsuzsanna. I'm really happy that at the last session of the champs we could get another 1-2 for Hungary."
Jakabos matched that with: "It's a fantastic success for Hungary. I tried to fully focus on my race but you couldn't miss the fans cheers, we all heard them, it was fabulous."
Gandy, beaming with a birthday bronze in her hand, nodded to the frenzied atmosphere of a vuvuzela-wielding partisan crowd on Margaret Island when she said: "It's petrifying to stand up and face that ... its what the world faces when it stands up to face us in London."
History unfolding:
Effect on race on all-time top 10:
Euro podiums:
Euro finals:
From the archive: In 1995, a would-be thief chanced his luck with the wrong woman on Copacabana in Rio. It was the eve of the world short-course championship, the venue was a fabulous temporary facility on the beach and one of Europe's top swimmers was taking a stroll along one of the world's most famous beaches to relax. The rogue tried to get his hands on the bag hanging from the shoulder of 'fly ace Mette Jacobsen (DEN). She felt the tug, turned and kung-fu kicked her assailant into submission. She was impressive in the water too: champion over 200m in 1991, she then won silver in 1995 behind an Irish swimmer heading for trouble, and bronze in 1997 before claiming the title once more in 1999. A year later, Jacobsen took silver behing future Olympic champion Otylia Jedrzejczak (POL), the Dane's run ending in 2004 with a bronze that contributed to her being the most decorated 200 'fly swimmer in European championship history.
Records
Shiny suit era
February 1 2008
