The Hungarian Olympic team performed excellently at the Sidney
Olympic Games: out of the 200 participating and the 83 medal-winning
countries, Hungary took the 13th place on the medal tables. Of
the 17 Hungarian medals, most were gold.
The first Hungarian gold medal in Sidney was won by sabre-fencer
Tímea Nagy on the second day of the Games.
The second Hungarian gold came in the swimming pool and went to
the 18-year-old World and European champion, Ágnes Kovács.
She set both an Olympic and a European record in the semi-finals
of breaststroke swimming, and then she also won the finals - though
only in the last five metres.
Szilveszter Csollány, a 30-year-old gymnast presented a
perfect exercise on the rings in the finals for each apparatus,
taking the third Hungarian gold medal at the Games.
György Kolonics won an Olympic gold in the canoe, then came
Zoltán Kammerer and Botond Storcz in the kayak twos, while
Imre Pulai and Ferenc Novák won the canoe twos. The quartet
including Gábor Horváth, Zoltán Kammerer,
Botond Storcz and Ákos Vereckei were confident winners of
the kayak fours.
And finally, after 21 years, the Hungarian water-polo team won
an Olympic gold. The team including Tibor Benedek, Péter
Biros, Rajmund Fodor, Tamás Kásás, Gergely
Kiss, Zoltán Kósz, Tamás Märcz, dr. Tamás
Molnár, Barnabás Steinmetz, Zoltán Szécsi,
Bulcsú Székely, Attila Vári and Zsolt Varga
beat the Russian team by 13-6.
