Two more golds for Hungary at the Olympics

Gymnast Krisztián Berki won the men’s pommel horse event Sunday afternoon to take Hungary’s third Olympic gold at this Olympics, while compatriot Krisztián Pars followed suit in the evening by conquering the title in the men’s hammer throw. Between these two achievements, Péter Módos won a bronze for Hungary in wrestling.

Krisztián Berki, winner of the last two world titles in the pommel horse event, was the hot favorite to win the Olympic title in 2012. However, he made some errors in the preliminaries earlier in the week and that gave rise to British hopes for Louis Smith or Max Whitlock to cause a surprise. In the final, Berki put up an excellent performance, receiving 16.066 points, the same as Smith but the higher level of execution decided the title in the Hungarian’s favor with Whitlock finishing third. This is the 15th gold for Hungarian gymnastics in Olympic history.

In the men’s hammer throw final, world silver medalist and this year’s European champion Krisztián Pars was also one of the favorites in a field that included the champions of the three previous Olympic Games. For his third attempt, Pars threw the hammer at 80.59 meters. This turned out to be the only throw over 80 meters in this final – and the winner despite the fact that both the defender of the Olympic title, Primoz Kozmus of Slovenia and the 2004 Olympic champion, Koji Murosfushi of Japan achieved their season’s best in this final. With this victory, Krisztián Pars cherishes the great traditions in Hungarian hammer that produced four Olympic titles before – the last by Balázs Kiss in Atlanta in 1996.

The third medal for Hungary this Sunday came from Péter Módos who won a bronze in the 55-kilogram category in men’s Graeco-Roman wrestling. In the 8th finals, Módos lost to the would-be Olympic champion Iranian Hamid Mohammad Soryan Reihanpour but then fought his way to the bronze medal match that he won against Denmark’s Haakan Erik Nyblom.

After nine days, Hungary is 10th on the medal table of the 2012 London Olympics with four gold, one silver and three bronze medals.