Katinka Hosszú has sucessfully defended her 200m medley world title at the FINA World Championships in Gwangju, South Korea.
Hosszú finished first with a time of 2:07.53, beating China’s Ye Shiwen (2:08.60) and Canadian Sydney Pickrem (2:08.70), winning her eighth and Hungarian swimmers’ 29th gold medal at a world championship.
After the event Hosszú – who resumed training in 2018 after a long break – said that while her time was still short of her 2:06:12 world record established in Kazan, Russia in 2015, it was good progress towards the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and that event won’t be the “end station” either.
Hosszú is the world record holder in the 100m individual medley, 200m individual medley, 400m individual medley, 100m backstroke and 200m backstroke. She was the first swimmer to hold world records in all five individual medley events at the same time. She also holds two-thirds of the Hungarian national records.
Hosszu was named FINA Swimmer of the Year in 2014, 2015, and 2016, and won SwimSwam's Swammy Award for Female Swimmer of the Year in 2013.
Photo credit: M4 sport