Milak cements himself as Tokyo contender
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BUDAPEST • Caeleb Dressel is widely expected to be the biggest threat to Singaporean Joseph Schooling's hopes of defending his 100m butterfly gold at the Tokyo Olympics.
But the American world record holder will not be the only contender in Japan after Kristof Milak showed he will be another one to watch with a blistering time at the European championships.
Having won the 200m butterfly on Wednesday by beating his nearest rival by three seconds, the Hungarian added the 100m fly title on Sunday, delighting the home crowd once again.
The 21-year-old clocked 50.18sec for a meet record and the fourth best performance of all time.
Only three men have swam faster in the distance and all under the 50-second mark - Dressel, Michael Phelps, whose 200m world record Milak took in 2019, and Serbia's Milorad Cavic.
"I managed to take on the guys in Europe, now there is one more clash in the summer," said Milak, the 200m fly world champion. "This is what I'm preparing for and I hope I will be in competition mood in Tokyo since today, I didn't feel any excitement."
Britain ended the championships on Sunday on top of the standings in a clear sign of intent ahead of the Olympics, with star swimmer Adam Peaty taking home four golds.
The Olympic 100m breaststroke champion added the 4x100m medley relay on Sunday to his collection of titles in the 50m and 100m breast and mixed 4x100m medley relay as Britain finished with 11 golds and 26 medals overall.
"I'm so tired, I just want to go home," said Peaty. "It's been a lot of races for me this week, so I have to look into how I can recover better and faster for the Olympics. But I'm very happy, we are looking very strong, we have a great team and a great support team behind us, so we can only perform really well."
Italy claimed 27 medals of which five were golds and three of them came on the final day.
Simona Quadarella won the 400m freestyle, while Margherita Panziera took the gold in the 200m backstroke and Benedetta Pilato, 16, swept to victory in the 50m breaststroke, a day after setting a world record in the event.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE