Ten years after the first edition in 2011, those title fights were opened yesterday in which Austria’s aces, at least according to paper form (world rankings, performance curve), should not be able to build on the grandiose successes of the past. A coup like Clemens Doppler and Alex Horst’s entry into the final at the 2017 World Cup spectacle on Vienna’s Danube Island would be a sensation.
Their “successors” haven’t really been able to play their part in the display yet. The red-white-red team is represented by four teams in the Foro Italico. Hopes rest on Robin Seidl and Philipp Waller, who finished ninth at the 2019 World Championships in Hamburg. This time the two are seeded as number 16 – and thus two positions ahead of Martin Ermacora and Moritz Pristauz, who showed with a third place in Doha.
Alex Huber/Christoph Dressler and the only ÖVV women’s team Katharina Schützenhöfer/Lena Plesiutschnig also qualified. “Moving up to the knockout phase is the first goal, that’s when the fun really begins,” said men’s head coach Martin Olejnak, who has been in office since the end of 2021.
Source: Nachrichten
