Picture: ANDREJ ISAKOVIC (AFP)
BELGRADE. Felix Auböck distanced himself from the competitors within the 400 meter freestyle. This was adopted by Austria’s first ever relay title.
Felix Auböck is European champion. The Decrease Austrian completed the 400-meter freestyle in Belgrade on Sunday within the Austrian report time of three:43.24 minutes.
The 27-year-old, who gained Austria’s first long-track European Championship title since 2008, beat second-placed Dimitros Markos by 4.20 seconds.
However that wasn’t sufficient: simply half an hour into the final race of this European Championship, Austria’s 4×100-meter medley relay staff with Bernhard Reitshammer, Valentin Bayer, Simon Bucher and Heiko Gigler added one other European title. The quartet, which additionally certified for the Video games, gained in 3:33.41 minutes, three hundredths of a second forward of Poland and 9 forward of Ukraine. Closing swimmer Gigler, who had taken over in third place, overtook his opponents within the final lap.
Bild: GEPA photos/ Mathias Mandl (GEPA photos)
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Bild: GEPA photos/ Mathias Mandl (GEPA photos)
It’s Austria’s first relay gold medal at a significant occasion. Two years in the past, Austria’s medley quartet gained bronze on the European Championships in Rome. Austria completed the championships in Belgrade with 5 gold medals (Auböck, medley relay, diver Lotfi/Knoll, 2 x creative swimmer Alexandri) and one silver medal (Bucher).
“That was the perfect day of my life,” stated Bucher in his first response. The ASV Linz athlete added: “My time wasn’t that quick, however Heiko was simply unbelievable.”
Gigler stated that following lacking the Olympic particular person restrict, he swam with “a little bit of anger in his abdomen”: “The final 50 meters felt like an eternity.”
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Liberation on the proper time
For the Decrease Austrian, the European Championship title comes at simply the appropriate time, only a month earlier than the beginning of the Summer time Video games in Paris. Auböck moved from Nice Britain once more to Austria for the instant preparation. On the Südstadt efficiency heart in Maria Enzersdorf, he made a change in method beneath the route of coach Balasz Fehervari.
Nevertheless, the quite a few hours invested within the first races had not but yielded the specified return. “It was not what I had imagined and hoped for,” Auböck stated earlier than the European Championships, gritting his enamel. “Within the anxious scenario (of the race, word) it didn’t work in addition to it did in coaching.”
On the European Championships, it lastly labored. The earlier downside that his crawl method was deteriorating because the races went on and that he was falling behind consequently has been solved. “The European Championships have been my final massive take a look at, my solely take a look at the place it needed to work.” The remaining 5 weeks till the Olympic Video games at the moment are loads simpler for him.
Within the synchronized competitors, divers Dariush Lotfi and Anton Knoll sensationally turned European champions from the 10-meter tower on Friday. On their very own, the 2 took ninth and tenth place from the 10-meter tower on Sunday.
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The European Championship title following six ultimate jumps went to Briton Robbie Lee.
Lotfi and Nikolaj Schaller didn’t obtain a prime putting within the synchronized ultimate on the three-board. The red-white-red duo completed ninth out of ten finalists following six jumps.
This text in a nutshell:
- On the final day of the European Swimming Championships in Belgrade, Austria gained two titles inside half-hour because of Felix Auböck (400 meter freestyle) and the 4×100 meter medley relay with Bernhard Reitshammer, Valentin Bayer, Simon Bucher and Heiko Gigler.
- That is the primary time that Austria has gained a relay gold medal at a significant championship. The 4×100-meter relay staff had already gained bronze on the 2022 European Championships in Rome.
- For Auböck, his first main title following a change in method, only a month earlier than the Summer time Olympics in Paris, is the long-awaited breakthrough.
