Paks, the town of sports
Paks is known as a town of sports for a long time, thanks to sportsmen like Antal Kovács judoka, who is an Olympic and World champion, and Ákos Braun also a judoka, who has won gold medals at that year's World and European Championships. György Kozmann sprint canoeist, has won two bronzes at two Olympics, and also has won five golds at the ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships and four golds at the Canoe Sprint European Championships. The town has great chess players like Ferenc Berkes, Tamás Fodor, Péter Ács, all three of them have the Grandmaster title. The future is in Barna Bor judoka, László Csokonyai judoka and Gergő Boros sprint canoeist, but there are always a lot of young talents in our town.
The sporting life of Paks has great traditions, the sport has always had an important role in the life of citizens. Thanks to the all-time leaders of the town, and also to the economic units settled in Paks, they tried to create possibilities of practicing sports to the citizens from the beginning.
Paks is one of the 17 township of the country, which has won the "Sport City of the Nation" award (in 1995), thanks to the significant improvements in creating various and active sporting life and possibilities.
Rightly to the honourable mention of the state, the Municipality of Paks, the Nuclear Power Plant and also entreprises and individuals support the sporting life, commited beyond question to the healthy lifestyle and exercise. Citizens of Paks not only like to watch sport events, but also like to practice actively. Beginning with the little ones, until the oldest citizens, they can choose from many sport assiciations and departments, if they stand for regular physical training. Approximately 8 % of the population is certified sportsman.
People who want to practice sports, can choose from many possibilities, a sports hall, a swimming pool, a beach, a skating rink in winter, more outdoor sports courts, courts with artificial turf grass, a tennis hall, a lot of gyms operate in the town, not to mention water sports possibilities on the Danube. Paks organise a lot of prestigious international and home competitions in the town, for example judo, boxing, basketball or chess competitions and football matches. Prides of the town are Olympic, World, European and nationwide champions, they create reputation for sport associations and also generate new fans to their sports.
Two significant sport associations operate in the town, these are the Sport Association of Paks (PSE) with seven departments (football, tennis, boxing, karate, rhythmic gymnastics, orienteering, leisure sports) and the Nuclear Power Plant’s Sport Association (ASE) with six departments (judo, kayak-canoe, basketball, football, chess, leisure sports). It is worth mentioning that, under the leisure department there are nine sections: women gymnastics, table tennis, skiing, hiking, oldmen football, basketball, bowling, karate, sailing. There is a wide choice of sporting possibilities.
The Municipality of Paks honour the achievements of sportsmen, who achieve international results every year, the aim is not only to help the preparation, but also to reward the results. This way they recognise the work of sportsmen among the years, their will, their power and their time and their outstanding results.
The Municipality also honour people, who work for improving the sporting life of Paks and also their work help to create an inland and international reputation to the town, with the award of „For the sporting life of Paks town” since 2006. They award this title in 6th of May, every second year, which is the national day of Hungarian Sports.
A few words about the beginnings
The first written records about the sporting life of Paks submitted from 4th of August 1912, when the student football team of Paks vs. the student football team of Bölcske played a match. Soon after, the Athletic Sports Club of Paks was established, beside that, three football team were operating in the town, with more or less succes. The history of basketball in Paks also goes back for a long time. The founders of basketball were students of the merchant secondary school, who also participated in competitions started from 1948.
The Sport Association of Paks was established in 1952, while the Nuclear Power Plant’s Sport Association was established in 1979.
In 1982, Antal Hajba (who was a spin canoeist and also participated in the Olympics and finished fourth) was asked as a leader of the Kayak-Canoe Department of the Nuclear Power Plant’s Sport Association, he laid the foundation of the department. Ervin Hoffmann won three gold medals at the ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships and also, he became the first World champion of Tolna county, according to his achievements, the department joint to the international spin canoeing world. Since the middle of the 1990’s, sportsmen of the department had been winning European and World Youth Championships. Lajos Siebel in kayak, György Kozmann and Imre Feil in canoe, won gold medals at Canoe Sprint Championships. The most productive competitor of the department is György Kozmann, who won four golds at the ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships, he has been a gold medalist for four times at the European Championships and he has won two bronzes at two Olympics. Competitors of the department won seven Hungarian Championships at the Hungarian Marathon Championship and the Hungarian Flat Water Championship in 2010. Gergely Boros, Tamás Somorácz, Vanda Kiszli and Réka Fenyvesi are hopes of the future, because they have proved their talent in many international competitions so far.
Gyula Olasz and János Váradi established the Judo Department of the Nuclear Power Plant’s Sport Association in 1979, which has one Olympic Champion and more European Champions and World Champions so far. In 1982, József Tuncsik, a famous judoka has been transferred to the Judo Department, this way the judo became more and more popular in the town. László Hangyási moved to Paks in 1987, he is the leader of the department since 1989. With the help of coach Hangyási, Antal Kovács became the first hungarian Olympic and World Champion in judo. He also won six golds at the Hungarian Judo Championships, he is a University Champion, he won at the Intercontinental Cup, he has won more medals at the European Judo Championships and also at the World Judo Championships. We also have to mention Ákos Braun, who won gold medals at the World Judo Championships in 2005, and also at the European Judo Championships in 2005, beside he is a University World Champion, and he won silver in team at the European Judo Championships, he also won medals at Intercontinental Cups and he is a Hungarian Judo Champion.
When the Chess Department of the Nuclear Power Plant’s Sport Association was established, their aim was to create a team from young chess players trained by themselves, so they placed strong emphasis on youth chess and chess education. Started from there, the department won the "Best Department of Hungary" title in 2001. The biggest achievements of the department so far: Péter Ács won the World Junior Chess Championship (age group 20s) in 2001, Tamás Fodor won the World Youth Chess Championship (under-10) in 2001, Ferenc Berkes won the World Youth Chess Championship (under-18) in 2002. At Chess Olympiads, chess players from Paks were also members of the Hungary national chess team (Péter Ács, Ferenc Berkes, Szidónia Vajda). The Department of Nuclear Power Plant’s Sport Association organise the György Marx Competition in every year, since 2004, which is an outstanding international chess event in Paks.
In 1980, János Nagy established the Basketball Department of the Nuclear Power Plant’s Sport Association. With the help of coach Zoltár Hesser, the young basketball players of Paks got into the elite in 1984. In 1986, with the contribution of leader coach Károly Simon, the team achieved a great success and they qualified for the National Championship I/A, where they have excellent results untill now. The team of the Nuclear Power Plant’s Sport Association became one of the most successfull team of the National Championship, as they won four Championships and four Cups. Over the years, many national team player were member of the team of the Nuclear Power Plant’s Sport Association, for example: Róbert Gulyás, Frigyes Morgen, József Radovics, Ernő Sitku, Márton Fodor and Gergely Fodor, László Czigler, Zalán Mészáros, Ákos Horváth, Gergely Körtélyesi. Outstandig member of the team was Róbert Gulyás, who was the member of European national team in 1999.
The football team of the Sport Association of Paks played National Championship III. in the 1980’s, they won the Championship in 1990, and they qualified to the National Championship II. In 1993, leaders of the two football teams of Paks realised that, there is no need for two teams in a small town, so they signed an agreement to operate a joint football team. The team achieved great results at the Championship of 2005/2006, they qualified to first class at the first time of the history of Paks’ football. After this success the Football Club of Paks (PFC) was established under the Sport Association of Paks. Only during the past years, the team has had well-known players. For example Attila Tököli, Krisztián Lisztes, Miklós Salamon, Zoltán Molnár, László Éger, Tibor Márkus and János Zováth were team members. The town has a cheerleader team, called Atomic Strike, which was established in 2006. They cheer for the team at the long stand, in front of the tribune. Since the season of 2006/2007, the Football Club of Paks (sponsored name of the team is MVM Paks) achieved its greatest success in 2011, when the team won a gold medal at the Football League Cup and won a silver at the Championship. The value of the results of PFC increased by the fact that, unlike other professional clubs in Hungary, they do not occupy any foreign players.
We all remember the name of „Bogesz” or „Kacsa”, members of the Boxing Department of Sport Association of Paks, who fought themselves into the elite of professional boxing, while they were representing Paks. László Bognár was the lightweight champion of the International Boxing Council (IBC) and the International Boxing Union (IBU), while Zoltán Kalocsai as a light middleweight boxer, among the hungarian professional boxers he won the Inter-Continental tittle of the World Boxing Union (WBU) and as the first hungarian he reached the professional World Championships of the World Boxing Organization (WBO). Worth to mention Lajos Erős, who won a silver at the Olympics in 1988. Since then, competitors of the Department provide outstanding performance at restricted competitions and regional competitions, under the direction of coach László Kajtár, coach Ádám Feil and coach Sándor Szakály. More competitors are/were also members of the Hungary national boxing team.