Two more watersports Olympic golds for Hungary

Thursday produced two more gold medals for Hungary at the London Olympics: one, by Danuta Kozák in the women's 500-meter single kayak event, more or less expected; and a quite unexpected one by Éva Risztov in the women's 10-km marathon swim race.

Danuta Kozák won Hungary's seventh gold medal at the 2012 London Olympic Games by crossing the finish line first in the women's flatwater kayak single 500-meter event Thursday morning at the Eton College Rowing Centre on Dorney Lake near London.

The 24-year-old kayaker, who had already won a gold medal at this Olympics as a member of the Hungarian kayak-four team, was trailing title defender Ukrainian Inna Osypenko-Radomska for some two-thirds of the race but then, she changed pace and won the event comfortably.

While a Hungarian win in flatwater kayak/canoeing comes as not much of a surprise, it was quite surprising - but just as sweet - for Hungarian fans to see 26-year-old Éva Risztov taking the Olympic title in the women's 10-kilometer marathon swim contest that lasted for almost two hours for her.

Risztov, who also competed at this Olympics in the 400-, 800- and 4×100-meter events but could not qualify for the final, led the field of 24 swimmers right from the start in the marathon race in Lake Serpentine in London's Hyda Park. In the last 100 meters, American Haley Anderson almost caiught up with the Hungarian but Risztov renewed her efforts to nbeat her opponent.

Also in women's flatwater kayaking, the Hungarian title defenders of the 500-meter kayak double event, Katalin Kovács and Natasa Janics were not able to repeat their performance from four years ago and had to be content with the silver medal behind the German pair of Franziska Weber and Tina Dietze.

Thursday's two golds and one silver bring the Hungarian medal count to 8 gold, 4 silver and 3 bronze medals and earning Hungary the 8th position on the medal table.