Emotional Hosszu retains 200m IM world title

BUDAPEST, Hungary: Katinka Hosszu said defending her women’s 200m individual medley title in front of her home crowd at the world aquatics championships on Monday was an “unforgettable experience.”

Hosszu clocked 2min 07.00 seconds to retain the gold medal with Japan’s Yui Ohashi in silver at 0.91 seconds and Madisyn Cox of the US earning bronze, 2.71 seconds behind.

The 28-year-old Hosszu is the first woman to win three gold medals in the event at world championships, following her successes at Barcelona in 2013 and Kazan two years later.

Hosszu was well short of her world record of 2:06.12, set in Kazan two years ago, but is the favorite to also defend her 400m IM world title on Sunday.

She was roared on to her third straight 200m IM world crown by the passionate crowd in Budapest.

“It was really amazing how everyone was supporting me in red, white and green, when I got out of the pool, I couldn’t believe it,” Hosszu said.

Fireworks were set off next to the podium as she collected the sixth world title of her career.

The crowd sang along with the Hungarian national anthem ‘Himnusz’ as Hosszu struggled to keep her emotions in check.

“Thank you for the experience, it was unforgettable — I almost cried,” admitted Hungary’s “Iron Lady.”

Ben Proud won the men’s 50m butterfly gold but only realized he had won when no one else celebrated.

Proud, 22, clocked 22.75 seconds in the sprint event with Brazil’s Nicholas Santos second at 0.04 secs back while Andrii Govorov of Ukraine took bronze at 0.09 in a tight finish.

“At first I didn’t realize I had won,” admitted Britain’s Proud, clearly shocked by his own victory.

“I was waiting for someone else to start celebrating, but when no one did, I looked on the scoreboard and saw my name on top.”

Proud was born in London, but moved back to the UK from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia as an 11-year-old to follow his dreams of becoming a pro swimmer.

“It’s a weird feeling, this is something I’ve dreamt of since I started swimming,” he said. “It’s the reason I moved to the UK.

“For it to happen today is amazing, I was never going to give up on that dream, I was going to keep going into my mid-30s.”

Earlier, Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom was surprised to narrowly miss her own world-record in becoming the first woman to win four golds in the women’s 100m butterfly,

The 23-year-old clocked 55.53 seconds, a new championships record, just 0.05 seconds from her own world record set at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics last year.