The 26-year-old pentathlon silver medalist Rasovszky won the second world championship title of his career: in 2019, in Gwangju, he triumphed in the 5 kilometers, while now he triumphed in the Olympic event.
The 20-year-old Betlehem secured his Olympic start by achieving one of the best individual World Cup results of his adult career. The young Hungarian was fifth at the 2022 World Cup in Budapest.
In the Gulf of Doha, the men faced practically the same conditions as the women a day earlier, in addition to the pleasant temperature, the strong wind stirred up significant waves in the water this time as well – the special correspondent of the Hungarian Telegraph Office reported in his on-the-spot report.
In the Olympic qualification competition, 79 people fought for the last quotas, all three podium finishers from Fukuoka were in the field, so they are already certain Olympic participants, the German champion Florian Wellbrock, Rasovszky, and the also German Oliver Klemet. Apart from them, the best 13 and one more swimmer per continent (from a country that did not have an Olympic competitor) might obtain an Olympic quota.
Rasovszky started the competition with six 1,660-meter laps and Betlehem with starting number 77. Immediately following the start, the European “greats” – including the two Hungarians – “took” the field and dictated a serious pace, Rasovszky finished the first lap in the lead.
Even when he reached the halfway point, he was pacing in front, but the field was very close together, only four seconds separated the first ten – including fourth-placed Betlehem. The leading group kept pace together in the continuation, the Frenchman Logan Fontaine started the last lap from the front, but the others were close behind him. A thousand meters before the finish line, there was still less than two seconds between the first and the seventh, a huge position began, and Rasovszky broke into the lead.
The Hungarian classic gained an advantage of two body lengths following the last corner, and from there he did not let the victory out of his hands, he confidently triumphed.
Betlehem even had a chance for the bronze medal in the heat, but following a tremendous physical battle, it finally finished in sixth place. Rasovszky won the Hungarians’ first medal at the World Championships in Doha.
On Saturday, in the women’s race, Bettina Fábián finished in 12th place and also earned an Olympic quota, while Mira Szimcsák was 26th.
Rasovszky travels to the Olympics for a medal, Betlehem is angry regarding the missed podium
I came here following last year’s World Cup wanting to win a medal once more, which would be a good start to the year, so I tried to do as much as possible. Here, the conditions were very favorable for me, as there was a little wind, waves and the water was cooler than usual
he told MTI Rasovszky, who in 2019 was the first Hungarian world champion in the history of the discipline with his success at 5 kilometers, and now he became the first Hungarian to win in the Olympic race.
“My preparation went well, I felt strong throughout the competition. I tried to stay out of the grind, because for those competitors who are going for the Olympic quota, it was a life-and-death fight for them, but I wanted to go at the beginning. In the last half lap, I felt I still had it in me, the others faltered a little, and I took advantage of that” said the 26-year-old classy.
Before the World Cup, Rasovszky said that top form is not timed for this competition at all:
“Before Fukuoka, my preparation was better than this, we haven’t fully developed everything for this track. Of course, we prepared, but we also knew that it was only February and that we would need to be in top form in the summer, so we gave ourselves the opportunity to go further” – answered the now two-time world champion to MTI.
The Hungarian competitor added that, as the reigning world champion, everyone is now expecting him to declare that he is traveling to Paris for gold, but he is still only focused on the podium:
It will be very tough, there are a lot of us, the French in a home environment, or indeed the defending champion Florian Wellbrock, and we also saw that, apart from me, those who already had an Olympic quota did not perform very well. Everyone is getting ready for Paris, if I win a medal, I will be satisfied, and of course that includes the gold, anything can happen
he said.
The other Hungarian competitor of the Olympic number, the 20-year-old Bethlehem David he missed the podium only in the last meters, so he angrily declared in the mixed zone:
“I held my own very well at the start, I was sure of the podium, and then everyone on my left wanted to “kill” me. This all makes me very angry, I missed the podium because of this, it can hurt. The Olympic quota is not a cure at all, I think it would have been a miracle if I didn’t get out, it’s more annoying that I got stuck in the end like this” – He told.
(Cover image: Gold medalist Kristóf Rasovszky following the men’s open water swimmers’ 10-kilometer race at the Aquatic World Championships in Doha on February 4, 2024. Photo: István Derencsényi / MTI)
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