Hungarian athletes won gold, silver and bronze medals in swimming and fencing on the third day of the Rio Olympic Games.

Katinka Hosszú won the women’s 200 m freestyle event for her third gold medal in Rio, becoming the second Hungarian swimmer to win three gold medals over the course of a single Olympic Games.  (Krisztina Egerszegi did so at the 1992 Games in Barcelona).

“I still can’t believe that I’m a three-time Olympic champion,” Hosszú said, adding that her goal “was to swim here as I would anywhere else.”  She attributed her victory despite a poor start and slow turns to “much luck and a lot of work”.

Hosszú could well match the four-gold record set by Hungarian gymnast Ágnes Keleti at the Melbourne Games in 1956, as Hosszú has a good chance of winning the 200 m backstroke.

Hungarian swimmer Tamás Kenderesi took bronze in the men’s 200 m butterfly.

“It was fantastic,” he said.  “I was very surprised to win a medal.  I’m unbelievably happy. The final five meters really stung, and I was wondering what to do.  I think my heart pulled it off.  I’m tired. I think I could use a cheese pastry or two.”

Kenderesi’s teammate, László Cseh, placed seventh in the event, which was won by American swimmer Michael Phelps for his 20th lifetime gold medal.

Hungarian fencer Géza Imre came close to winning the gold but had to settle for silver after South Korea’s Park Sang-jung came from behind to beat him.

Leading at one point by 14:10, Imre said: “I was unable to touch him again. I was sloppy at the end.”