On the road to the Madrid 2025 European Athletics Team Championships 1st Division from 27-29 June, we put the spotlight on newly-promoted Hungary who will be making their first ever appearance in the top flight next month.
Flashback to 2023
Hungary were the commanding winners of the 2023 European Athletics Team Championships 2nd Division in Silesia, winning by 20 points ahead of Ukraine.
In doing so, Hungary sealed promotion into the top flight of the biennial championships for the first time of the competition in its current iteration, although the Hungarians did feature on many occasions in the top flight of the European Cup, the predecessor of the European Athletics Team Championships which ran between 1965 and 2008.
Their promotion push in Silesia two years ago was bolstered by five victories across the programme, each yielding a maximum total of 16 points. Attila Molnar (400m), Luca Kozak (100m hurdles) and Istvan Palkovits (3000m steeplechase) were the individual winners for Hungary on the track.
Elsewhere, former European and world indoor champion Anita Marton took maximum points in the shot put once again in her farewell season while their women’s 4x100m team also set a national record of 43.49 to seal a full quota of points for the Hungarian team.
Track record
- Tallinn 2014, Estonia, First League (12th place)
Having enjoyed mid-table respectability for the first four editions, Hungary dropped into the third-tier after finishing rock bottom in the 1st Division in 2014 despite victories from Olympic champion Krisztian Pars and soon-to-be world bronze medallist Balazs Baji in the hammer and 110m hurdles respectively.
- Tel Aviv 2017, Israel, Second League (1st place)
But Hungary propelled themselves back into the second-tier with an overwhelming performance in the 2nd Division, topping the standings ahead of Slovakia by a whopping 66 points. Hungarian athletes notched up an incredible 22 top-three finishes across the 40 events.
- 2021 Stara Zagora, Bulgaria, Second League (1st place)
After suffering relegation in 2019, Hungary climbed their way back into the second-tier by topping the standings of the European Athletics Team Championships 2nd Division again. Their winning margin of 9.5 points was by no means as emphatic but provided the initial momentum for their second successive promotion finish.
Five to watch…
- Attila Molnar - men's 400m, 4x400m
There will be high expectations on the vastly improving Attila Molnar who came within 0.03 of the European indoor 400m record with 45.08 before winning his country’s first gold medal on the track at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in 40 years in Apeldoorn. A winner in the 2nd Division two years ago, can Molnar repeat this feat against Europe’s elite in Madrid?
- Boglarka Takacs - women's 100m, 200m, 4x100m
Only 23, Takacs already holds her country’s national records in the 60m (7.09), 100m (11.10) and 200m (22.71) as well as the 4x100m relay (43.38). She could be one of the busiest athletes of the weekend if she is called up for all three events.
- Bence Halasz (hammer)
Hungary has a long and established tradition in the hammer which has been continued by Bence Halasz who added silver medals from both the European Athletics Championships and Olympic Games to his growing list of achievements last year. The 27-year-old has already improved his lifetime best to 80.97m this year.
- Luca Kozak (100m hurdles)
At 28, it might be premature to describe Luca Kozak as a veteran but the sprint hurdler is one of the most experienced athletes on the Hungarian team having made her debut at the European Athletics Team Championships back in 2014. Like Molnar, Kozak was one of Hungary’s standout individual athletes in Silesia two years ago, winning the 100m hurdles in 12.89.
- György Herczeg (javelin)
One of the newer faces on the team, György Herczeg was one of the breakout stars of the 2023 season. He broke the European U20 record with 84.98m, won European U20 gold and also qualified for the World Athletics Championships on home soil in Budapest as a teenager. Herczeg is yet to rediscover this sort of form this year but at 20, he has ample time to build on the huge promise he showed as a junior.
