Petö and Haller Receive Top Honours in Hungary

2001 World Champions Tibor Petö and Akos Haller are being recognised and honoured by their countrymen after their gold medal performance in the men’s double in Lucerne last August.

The young duo is the first to bring Hungary a rowing World Championships gold medal.

As a crew the two were chosen as the “Best team of Hungary” for 2001 by the Hungarian sports journalists and were awarded their prize during the “Sportstars of the Year” gala at the Congress Centre in Budapest.

Individually the two rowers have also received awards for the long hours spent on the water.

Stroke Tibor Petö became an “Honorary Citizen” of his hometown Vác, a small community of 30,000 inhabitants about 30 km north of Budapest. The 22-year old rows for the Vác rowing club when he is not competing internationally.

25-year old Akos Haller, who is currently in his fifth year of medical school, was recently awarded the “Good student – good sportsman” title by the Minister of Education of Hungary.

Petö and Haller have been rowing together in the double since 1998.  After placing fifth at the 2000 Olympic Games they won gold in each of the 3 World Cups they attended in 2001 and closed the season with the World Championships gold.