Wrestling: Zoltán Lévai was the first Hungarian wrestler to appear at the Olympics. The 77-kilogram grappler was defeated by the Turkish European and world champion Burhan Akbudak in the round of 16, who previously weighed 82 kilos, a weight group below. Lévai started the match actively, Akbudak was waved first and sent down to the mat. Lévai locked Akbudak’s waist, but his opponent defended well, escaped to the edge of the mat, it was impossible to spin him over. Lévai continued to go forward and was able to push the Turk out, which led to a 2-0 lead. At the beginning of the second three minutes, Akbudak was seen to be more active, so Lévai went down to a parter position. The Turk tried to catch him, but was unable to start an action. Later, Akbudak was more defensive, no more points were scored, so Lévai advanced to the top eight.
There, the Azeri Sanan Suleymanov, who was second in the World Championship last year, was waiting for him. Lévai also started this match strongly, the judge saw him as more active, so the Azeri was sent to the ground. Lévai was able to grab his opponent’s waist, but he defended well, so the Hungarian only got one point. In the second half, Suleymanov was the beneficiary, so Lévai was sent off. He also defended well, so the score was only 1-1. However, according to the rules, a point earned later can be worth a victory, so Lévai should have pulled something unexpected. Instead, the Azeri almost pushed him off the mat, a big save had to be made. By the last half minute, Lévai had apparently reached the end of his strength, he was unable to perform an action worth points, even though he had a good opportunity to attack. Lévain could have continued, but for that Suleymanov would have had to reach the final to take the Hungarian with him to the consolation prize. This did not work out, Suleymanov lost 6-1 to the Kazakh Demeu Zhadrajev.
Athletics: Petra Bánhidi-Farkas was the only Hungarian starter in the morning program. You could get to the long jump finals with 675 centimeters or the best 12 results. Bánhidi-Farkas first jumped 640 cm, then his second two attempts were weaker than that, so he was eliminated.
Kayak-canoe: In the preliminaries on Tuesday, the program started with the 500-meter race of the kayak quads, the women’s quad (Noémi Pupp, Sára Fojt, Tamara Csipes, Dóra Gazsó Alida) immediately reached the final, the men’s quad (Bence Nádas, Kolos Csizmadia, István Kuli, Tótka Sándor) made it to the middle race.
In the men’s kayak doubles, both Hungarian pairs made it to the middle race, the Hungarian team consisting of Sándor Nádas-Bence-Tótka and Ádám Kopasz-Bálint-Varga also has a chance to reach the finals.
In women’s kayak doubles, Dóra Csipes Tamara-Gazsó Alida and Sára Pupp Noémi-Fojt were third in their respective heats, so both units will continue in the hope race.
The men’s and women’s canoe pairs qualified for the hope race. Adolf Balázs and Jonatán Hajdu finished fourth in the preliminary race, while Ágnes Kiss and Bianka Nagy finished in third place.
In the early afternoon, the races of hope were organized, where among the Hungarian competitors, the women’s canoe duo, Ágnes Kiss and Bianka Nagy, were the first to be interested. The duo won their race of hope, thus reaching the middle race of 500 meters.
Adolf Balázs and Jonatán Hajdu finished in second place in the men’s canoe doubles race, so the Hungarian team made it to the middle race.
In the women’s kayak doubles competition, two Hungarian pairs also appeared in the second hope race. In the end, both duos made it to the intermediate race, Tamara Csipes and Dóra Alida Gazsó won the hope race, and Noémi Pupp and Sára Fojt came fourth.
Handball: The quarter-final against Sweden was decided in extra time, the women’s national team was leading shortly before the end of regular time, but then the Swedes equalized. They handled the extra time better, the end was 36-32, thus ending the Olympics for our handball players.
Water polo: Our women’s polo team held the world champion and three-time defending champion America to five goals in the quarter-finals, which is a fantastic performance, but in the meantime, they could not be surpassed in attack, the United States won 5-4, gaining a much greater man advantage.
