Hosszu and Hausding complete hat-trick – so far
Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu and Germany’s Patrick Hausding were the heroes of the day in the respective pools as they both won a third gold medal here in Berlin – and they have more events ahead. The Hungarians had a fine day with five medals, the British also added five to their tally and Denmark could celebrate two titles as well. The host Germans were also overjoyed after earning their first gold in swimming, courtesy of Marco Koch in the 200m breast.
Katinka Hosszu piled up 8.5kg of medals in the past short-course World Cup season, had doubles at the s/c major events but she could never clinch two individual medals on the same day in the big long course championships. Until this day. The Hungarian Iron Lady came off with two titles, she won them in a span of 40 minutes. After the 200m IM victory ceremony she walked immediately to the start of the 100m back where she shared the first place with Denmark’s Mie Nielsen. And that wasn’t the end of her adventure: again, after the second victory ceremony she joined her team-mates for the 4x200m free relay and added a bronze to her tally. That features three gold medals now and she has more events to compete in.
Hosszu broke the Championship Record in the 200m IM (2:08.11) and more CRs were also bettered on this day. Jazmin Carlin (GBR) launched the series of record-breaking performances in the 800m free (8:15.54), then Marco Koch (GER) also smashed it in the 200m breast (2:07.47) while delivering the first gold in swimming to the host nation and the Italian quartet also bettered the CR in the women’s 4x200m free relay (7:50.53). The CR count now stands at 16, showing the quality of the edition of the Europeans.
Other notable achievements of the day included Viktor Bromer’s (DEN) fine win in the 200m fly and Vladimir Morozov’s triumph in the 50m back which marked the first swimming title for Russia in Berlin.
History is in the making in the diving pool: Patrick Hausding made it three out of three in as many days after winning the 3m individual title. He came on the rocky road: after an erroneous first dive he found himself in the bottom of the field, at the 12th place. He bounced back quickly with a 92.75 pointer and started to chase his rivals. Though his most difficult, 3.7DD attempt wasn’t the best, he still started the last round from the second place, trailing 10 points to Ilia Zakharov (RUS). Nerves took over, the Russian’s dive wasn’t that good while Hausding managed to come up with a fine one only to win by a rather tiny 4.65-point margin.
The German won the 1m, the 10m synchro and now this event in three days and tied the legendary Dmitry Sautin’s record as the Russian was the only male diver till date who won three gold medals in one edition at the Europeans back in 2000 (Tania Cagnotto also made the hat-trick among the women in 2009). Hausding will have two more events (3m synchro, 10m) so he can become the first one in history to clinch four gold medals in one edition. Since he competes in his home pool (he has been training here since 1999) it wouldn’t be that surprising – but it would still be a magnificent feat.
Press release from LEN
Images courtesy of deepbluemedia.eu
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