On 10 June at 2 pm, a handful of enthusiastic teams set off for Maty-river, the Gróf Széchenyi István Olympic Centre for Kayaking and Rowing in Szeged, where the IX Open Water Swimming National Championships were held. There were three distances to enter: 10 km – 7.5 km – and 5 km. And if you ask what we were doing at such an event, the answer is simple. Alex Pászti, one of our peer, tested his skills in the open water in the 5 km race, in addition to his many pool sessions. On the way there we were thinking that even running that far is quite an achievement, let alone swimming it. Another complicating factor is that there are no support points, because you can’t scramble down to the bottom of the water, there are no kicks every 50 metres and you have to fight the forces of nature, the wind and the waves. The start was delayed by 15 minutes due to heavy rain, and it was still raining when the riders splashed into the water. Alex did the best he could, covering the 2,500-metre rectangular course twice. He was accompanied to the race by his coach, who was very pleased with his performance.
We certainly got a lesson from Alex in perseverance, dedication and motivation. Thank you Alex for letting us see this heroic fight!
Tünde Sztancsik, Tas Szabó, Gyöngyi Novák – Sz3
