Sport in Kiskunhalas

We say that Kiskunhalas is the town of lace, and we could also say that it is the town of sport. The sporting life here is busy and lively – alongside competitive events there are strong sporting traditions in schools and in people’s leisure activities. The most popular sports in Kiskunhalas have long been athletics, football, handball, wrestling, gymnastics and horse riding. Nowadays martial arts such as Thai-boxing, kick-boxing and tae kwon do are all competently organized, with those who take part achieving some spectacular results. There are twenty-eight different sports organizations in Kiskunhalas, the most recently founded being the KB Autoteam handball club and the tae kwon do group.

The Public Order Protection and Sport committee of the local council oversees the sporting life of the town, the elected representatives of the council decide financial support. The budget for sport in 2003 was 37 million forints, 20 million of which was given directly to the various sports organizations. In July 2002 the Municipal Sports Institute was formed. This body is responsible for the organization and coordination of local sporting events.

The teams of Kiskunhalas compete in championships at various levels. The Kiskunhalas women’s handball club (KNKS) is presently in the ‘B’ section of the national first division. The men’s handball team (KKC) plays in the national second division and the recently founded new women’s club (KB Autoteam) is in the first division of the county championship. Kiskunhalas Football Club appears in the so-called ‘Winner Sport’ group of the national second division and our other football team, Spartacus, is a member of the second division of the county league. The men’s basketball team is also in a regional league.

The Köszolg SC chess team is one of the strongest in the national second division. The gymnasts of the Fazekas DSE club regularly take part in domestic and international competitions. Student athletes from Kiskunhalas have always played an important part in Hungarian sporting life, this is evidenced by countless champion titles, Student Olympic successes and even ministerial recognition. Our highest achieving primary schools are Felsővárosi and Fazekas Gábor utcai. The GanzAir athletics club is prominent in its fostering of juniors, who may become the stars of tomorrow.

Olympians, Champions

Several athletes from Kiskunhalas have appeared in Hungarian colours at the Olympic Games. Amongst the equestrians, István Suti (Rome, 1960), János Krizsán (Munich, 1972), József Varró (Moscow, 1980), Attila Sós (Barcelona, 1992; Atlanta, 1996) and Pál Tuska (Atlanta, 1996) have all taken part in the Olympics. Gyula Paczolay was a judge for the gymnastics events in 1988 in Seoul and Jenő Klúcsó and Tivadar Lekrinszki refereed handball matches in 2000 in Sydney. József Varró won gold at the World Military Games in Rome. Another source of local pride is Gábor Szegedi, who until recently repeatedly featured in the Guinness Book of Records for his feat of single-handedly driving a team of fourteen horses, and who is also a two-in-hand world champion.

Gymnast Csaba Hegyes is a European Youth champion. In handball, Melinda Pastrovics is a World Junior Championship silver medallist and Szabina Tápai and Zsuzsanna Mucsi both have bronze medals from the European Youth Championship. Amongst our athletes, both Csaba Engi and Szabolcs Bán have taken part in the World Championships for their respective age groups. Kiskunhalas can also be proud of Dr Attila Jeremiás, Dr Antal Bácsalmási and Sándor Kuti who have all won gold medals at World Games for doctors or for health workers.

Competitions, Cups

After an interval of five years Kiskunhalas was once again the host of an international show jumping competition in May 2003. The 33rd Grand Prix was an outstanding success, and the town immediately afterwards started preparing for the next annual championship.

The town’s oldest school sports contest is the Bibó Cup (earlier called the Szilády Cup). This international secondary schools’ handball tournament was organized for the 36th time in March 2003. In 2003 the Péter Tulit international student gymnastics memorial challenge celebrated its 29th anniversary. The memorial handball competition named after István Horváth takes place every September, the latest being the 17th occasion. The ‘Halasi Hajtás’ triathlon has exercised the talents of hundreds of participants every August for almost twenty years. The harvest road-running race during the second weekend of September is one of the biggest such events in the whole country. The Szilády Cup is nowadays the name of a running contest. A newer challenge cup, which has prospects of becoming a tradition, is the streetball gala organized by Szilády Áron Reformed secondary grammar school. In only two years it has become one of the best-attended competitions for students, adults and families in the town.

Source: Levente Jáger