Simon Bucher confidently made it into Tuesday’s final (live on ORF Sport Plus from 6.30 p.m.) in the 50-meter butterfly at the European Swimming Championships in Belgrade.
The 24-year-old finished fourth overall in 23.29 seconds. Bucher thus underlined his medal ambitions.
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His ASV Linz colleagues Lena Kreundl – Austrian record (54.81/6th) over 100 meters freestyle – and Bernhard Reitshammer – 59.98 (5th) over 100 meters breaststroke – also made it to the finals.
Successful fitness test for Simon Bucher
For Bucher, who is now chasing his first individual European Championship medal, the 50 meters were also a good test of form. “I’m happy because things didn’t look so good at the Mare Nostrum Tour,” said the ASV Linz athlete, who was not fazed by the slow recovery in form.
“But I knew that I could show what I was capable of at the European Championships.” As much as Bucher, who started with a sleek moustache, enjoys swimming the 50m, “the focus is on the 100m because of the Olympics. But if I can swim at the front in the 50m, then that’s already very good.” The main course, in which he is the current vice world champion, starts tomorrow morning with the preliminary heats.
For the Wels high-flyer Lukas Edl, the 50-meter butterfly preliminary round ended with a time of 23.96, finishing 26th overall. Like Bucher, the 17-year-old will also tackle the 100-meter butterfly and the 50-meter freestyle (starting on Saturday).
Lena Kreundl “exploded”
Lena Kreundl delivered a real explosion of performance. The 26-year-old was the first Austrian woman to stay under 55 seconds in her 100-meter freestyle semi-final. The Steyr native, who improved by 0.6 seconds compared to the preliminary round (55.41), almost ended her career two years ago after several setbacks.
Despite the improvement in performance, Kreundl was about one second away from the Olympic limit. Just under an hour after her furious individual final, the police athlete was challenged in the 4×200-meter freestyle final. In this, Kreundl, along with Iris Julia Berger, Lena Opatril and Cornelia Pammer from Traun, came sixth out of the eight nations that competed. Because of the Olympic Games in Paris, which begin in just over a month, not all countries with the strongest contingent will be competing in Belgrade.
Final entry for birthday
The third finalist was Bernhard Reitshammer, who gave himself a present on his 30th birthday by reaching the final of the 100 meter breaststroke.
However, it was only a small gift, as the stated goal is to reach an Olympic individual limit. Reitshammer was just under four tenths short of that.
For Valentin Bayer, the semi-finals (12th) were the end of the line. He had a possible explanation for the jumps in times compared to the course of events. “It’s really hot here and exhausting,” he said, referring to the open pool in the Belgrade sports center.
Things cool down during the final session, which is what Kreundl and Reitshammer are hoping for on Tuesday with a view to the Olympic limits.
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Source: Nachrichten
