Unprecedented Hungarian success and another phenomenal gold at the European Aquatics Championships

24.hu celebrates Kristóf Rasovszky, open water swimmer as he won a gold medal on the last day of the 2018 European Aquatics Championship. Rasovszky was not broken by the dubious decision after his 10 km race and finished the tournament with two gold medals and with a could-have-been-gold silver one.

The young swimmer has written history last weekend, because he won both the 5 km and 25 km open water swimming in Glasgow and got a medal in 10 km as well.

Rasovszky is the first swimmer in history to win a medal in all three individual open water events.

The longest race

Kristóf Rasovszky first won the 5 km race, then finished (barely) second at 10 km. Finally, on the last day of the Championship he competed on 25 km as well. This length is so draining that most swimmers only attempt it once or twice during their career. This had been the third time that Rasovszky competed in the event, and the second that he could finish – for last year at the World Championship he was kicked and therefore forced to give up.

Although this time nobody kicked him, he was understandably exhausted. “In the first half of the last lap I tried to do everything on my own, I knew and I felt that I must push it, because everyone else is incredibly strong” shares Rasovszky his experience. “So I tried a shorter sprint at the end, as I did before.

When I got ahead of them I had the feeling that I might win this.

I was really focused on reaching forward at the finish line just in case we would have a photo-finish again, but thank God it was not necessary.”

The photo-finish incident

Why did Rasovszky worry about the photo-finish? Well, it is related to his silver medal which almost turned gold. At the 10 km event, the Olympic, World and European Champion Ferry Weertman managed to catch up to Rasovszky, and they ended up with the same finishing time. After checking the photo-finish Weertman got the first place and the Hungarian swimmer the second. However, the Hungarian Swimming Association appealed for a change, asking to announce a tie. Last week we were still crossing our fingers for Rasovszky to get his well-deserved gold. Unfortunately, this did not happen. With his one gold and one silver medal, he was already the most successful open water swimmer in Hungary, but the 25 km race was still ahead of him.