Milak destroys European field in 200m fly

BUDAPEST • Hungary's world-record holder Kristof Milak posted the second-fastest men's 200m butterfly at the European swimming championships in Budapest on Wednesday.

The 21-year-old stopped the clock at 1min 51.10sec, a championship record bettered only by the 1:50.73 he set at the 2019 world championships.

He was more then three seconds quicker than Italian silver medallist Federico Burdisso in 1:54.28, and now holds five of the 10 best swims of all time over the distance.

Russian Kliment Kolesnikov won the 100m freestyle in 47.37 seconds, a day after breaking the world record in the 50m backstroke (23.80sec).

However, he came last in the 100m backstroke semi-finals 10 minutes later (54.86sec) and received first aid, with the medal ceremony from the earlier event delayed to give him enough time to recover.

"I was just tired, it's something that can happen to you," the 20-year-old said, adding he had not given up on swimming both events at the Olympics.

Italy's defending champion Alessandro Miressi was second in 47.45sec with another Russian, Andrei Minakov, third in 47.74.

In the men's 1,500m free, Ukraine's Mykhaylo Romanchuk won in the season's second-best time of 14min 39.89sec.

After three days, Russia took over at the top of the medal table with five golds to Britain's three.

REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE