Hungarian Kristof Milak broke Michael Phelps’ 10-year-old world record in 200m butterfly at FINA World Championships in Gwangju
New Delhi: Swimming legend Michael Phelps praised Kristof Milak on Wednesday after the Hungarian broke the 18-year world record in 200m butterfly at the ongoing FINA World Championships in Gwangju, South Korea.
Tweeting from his wife’s handle (@MrsNicolePhelps), the 23-time Olympic gold medallist lavished accolades on the 19-year-old swimmer saying, “It happened because there was a kid who wanted to do it, who dreamed of doing it,…, who worked on his technique until it was beautiful & who put in the really, really hard work that it takes to do it. My hats off to him.”
Milak shaved off a whopping 0.78 seconds from Phelps’ world record of 1:51.51 in 200m butterfly clocked in Rome, 2009.
The 28-time Olympic medallist further told the New York Times, “As frustrated as I am to see that record go down, I couldn’t be happier to see how he did it. That kid’s last 100 was incredible. He put together a great 200 fly from start to finish,”
Phelps retired after the 2016 Olympics. He held the record for 18 years, first breaking it at age 15, then he broke his own record. He won four Olympic medals in the event, adding another four in the 100m version.
Milak, the youngest winner of the 200m butterfly, defeated Japan’s Daiya Sato (1:53.86) by over two seconds to clinch gold. Milak and 200m butterfly Olympic champion Chad le Clos seemed level till the 100m mark before the Hungary boy powered ahead.
He said, “It’s a tremendous honour to set such a great record. Until 14 I was a backstroker and later I focused on the butterfly. But earlier I only did 100 metres because I wasn’t strong enough.”
