Minister of State for Sports István Simicskó attended the closing press conference of the FINA World Open Water Junior Swimming Championships held in Hungary, which was an unparalleled success. Mr. Simicskó said it was a good decision to grant Hungary the right to host, and the government proved right in making a HUF 50 million (EUR 158,000) financial contribution to the event.
Simicskó congratulated the organizers and said that he hoped that Hungarians would also revel in the performance of Hungarian swimmers at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in 2016. He said that, as well as the current event, the fact that the young generation of Hungarians was taking up sports was also important and that the Hungarian swimmer succession base had risen from 5,000 to around 6,500 persons.
The 2014 FINA World Open Water Junior Swimming Championships took place in Balatonfüred between 5 and 7 September. This was the first world swimming event organized by Hungary, which only had 40 days to prepare after Israel had cancelled the event. The Minister of State said Hungarian athletes had been in a form never seen before at an open water event, finishing second on the medal chart.
“Our gratitude to the Hungarian Swimming Federation, the country and the town of Balatonfüred is beyond words for organizing the event at such an excellent standard and with such perfect devotion” – FINA Managing Director Cornel Mărculescu wrote in a letter to the organizers.