László Szalma's national record has not been broken for 40 years

Old Hungarian records in athletics are being broken one after another, however, the big question is how long HUSS teacher László Szalma's long jump record will survive.

Fans of the Hungarian athletics know exactly that the Hungarian record for the women's 4X100 relay was recently broken at the European Games in Poland. The quartet consisting of Gréta Kerekes, Jusztina Csóti, Boglárka Takács and Alexa Sulyán completed the distance in 43.49 minutes. The girls huddled together to celebrate the Hungarian record, which was broken again on Tuesday.

In connection with this and the upcoming Budapest 2023 IAAF World Athletics Championships, the editorial staff of the Hungarian National sportspaper, Nemzeti Sport contacted László Szalma, former long jumper and Head of the Department of Athletics at the Hungarian University of Sports Sciences (HUSS), who improved his own national record on 7 July 1985 in Budapest, winning with a distance of 830 centimetres. Since then, no Hungarian long jumper has ever bettered this performance.

"At that time, I would not have thought that my peak would last for so long, because I saw talented youngsters who had imagination", said László Szalma. “But in the last fifteen years this has changed, I felt more and more that this peak would unfortunately be an old one, there are no up-and-coming young athletes with potential. But it is important to keep children in the sport, and the younger they are, the more pedagogical sense they need."

As known, the Hungarian University of Sports Science has undertaken the training of volunteer coordinators of the Budapest 2023 IAAF World Athletics Championships, the university's Csörsz Street facility will be one of the training venues for the World Championships during the event, while the university will host a one-day professional conference with the world's most prominent sports scientists.

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