Milak, Kolesnikov and Burdisso showcase European young talent
GLASGOW — Hungarian teenager Kristof Milak produced another youthful tour de force at the European swimming championships to destroy the 200 metres butterfly field and even boldly attack Michael Phelps’s world record en route to winning gold on Sunday.
At an event showcasing the remarkable potential of young European swimming talent, the 18-yearold Milak set a championship record of one minute 52.79 seconds, while 16-year-old Italian Federico Burdisso won the bronze behind him.
Their performances followed that of 18-year-old Russian Kliment Kolesnikov, who had set a world 50 metres backstroke record on Saturday and beat his own world junior record at 100m backstroke in Sunday’s semifinals.
The men’s 1,500 metres saw the biggest shock of the Championships when Italy’s under-theweather Olympic champion Gregorio Paltrinieri was beaten by two young guns of endurance swimming, new champion Florian Wellbrock, of Germany, and Ukrainian Mykhaylo Romanchuk.
Teenager Milak has a daring, allor-nothing approach, giving everything for as long as he can and trying to hold on. After blitzing the first two lengths, he was ahead of Phelps’s record pace at halfway when the American clocked his landmark 1:51.51 in 2009.
Milak was still only a tenth of a second down on that pace going into the final length when he began to suffer for his monumental effort.
He still finished well clear of his fellow countryman Tamas Kenderisi (1:54.36) and Burdisso (1:55.97), who could not quite believe he had made the podium at such a tender age.
“He is not like me, he is really good,” Burdisso smiled, talking of Milak. “But yes, I am coming.”
Kolesnikov, who cannot seem to stop shredding world junior records, collected another when he clocked 52.95 seconds in his semifinal, slicing two-hundredths of a second off his own mark. Another one is probable in Monday’s final.
The 20-year-old Wellbrock swam nearly 20 seconds faster than in his semifinal. —