Day 14 in Rio2016: Mixed feelings

The 19^th of August started out great with our kayak-canoe units qualifying into the finals. However, the continuation wasn’t too bright: our women’s water polo team lost the bronze match in a nerve-wrecking battle, hammer thrower Krisztián Pars couldn’t defend his Olympic title as he finished in the 7^th place, and out female pentathlonists also missed the medals.

The Hungarian kayak-canoe team continued their great performance in yesterday’s qualifications and semi-finals. The women’s K-4 500 m unit (Gabriella Szabó, Danuta Kozák, Tamara Csipes, Krisztina Fazekas-Zur) won their race imperiously so we can have high hopes for another gold medal in today’s final.

The Henrik Vasbányai & Róbert Mike duo also made it into today’s final of C-2 1000 m. On the other hand, the men’s K-4 1000 m unit (Benjámin Ceiner, Tibor Hufnágel, Attila Kugler, Tamás Somorácz) and Péter Molnár only made it into final B in K-1 200 m.

On a sad note, our women’s water polo team lost the bronze match against Russia in a head-to-head battle, which ended with a nerve-wrecking penalty shootout. The bronze medal was so close, the girls played very well but the opponent levelled the score in the last second (!), thus saving the match to a penalty shootout. This means that the Hungarian women’s water polo team has now lost three Olympic bronze matches in a row. Such a pity!

“The bronze medals were taken in the last moment, but it was our fault. We turned the match around and then lost the battle, which we were so close to win, by making a few mistakes. (…) We practiced the penalty shots, we have two good goal-keepers, but the Russians moved a tad bit better. A 4^th place at the Olympics is a great feat of arms, but we’ll miss those medals. I feel sorry for the girls, but we have a young team capable of advancing until the Budapest World Championships next year” said Attila Bíró.

Unfortunately it wasn’t London Champion Krisztián Pars’ day either, he finished his participation with a throw of 75,28 metres, which was only enough for the 7^th place. We also watched the pentathlon events with high hopes as our girls, Sarolta Kovács and Zsófia Földházi had the potential to reverse the results. In the end they finished in the 17^th and 27^th place.

RESULTS:

Women’s K-4 500 m, qualification – Gabriella Szabó & Danuta Kozák & Tamara Csipes & Krisztina Fazekas-Zur 1^st place –> final A

Men’s K-1 200 m, semi-final – Péter Molnár 6^th place –> final B

Men’s C-2 1000 m, semi-final – Henrik Vasbányai & Róbert Mike 3^rd place –> final A

Men’s K-4 1000 m, semi-final – Benjámin Ceiner & Tibor Hufnágel & Attila Kugler & Tamás Somorácz 5^th place –> final B

Men’s 50 km walking – Bence Venyercsán 44^th place, Miklós Srp disqualified, Sándor Rácz gave up

Women’s 20 km walking – Viktória Madarász 25^th, Barbara Kovács 58^th and Rita Récsei 59^th

Women’s water polo, bronze match – Hungary-Russia 12:12 (penalty shootout 6:7) –> 4^th place

Women’s pentathlon, final – Sarolta Kovács 17^th place, Zsófia Földházi 27^th place

Men’s hammer throw, final – Krisztián Pars 7^th place

Photos: MTI

Copy editor: bm

Source: Daily News Hungary