This year’s Olympic bronze medalist and four-time European Championships medalist, who is struggling with health problems, finished fourth in the singles on Sunday. The Carinthian was only 24 hundredths short of bronze. The German Alexandra Föster caught Lobnig, who had been on course for a medal for a long time, just before the finish line.
Karolien Florijn (NED), the winner by far, and Evangelia Anastasiadou from Greece were also faster than the 32-year-old from Völkermarkt on the Munich Olympic regatta course. Lobnig dueled with Anastasiadou until a few hundred meters from the finish for second place, but silver and finally bronze were lost in the final sprint.
“Inspirational Battle”
ÖRV national coach Robert Sens spoke of an “inspiring struggle” for Lobnigs, who had to struggle with allergic asthma for many weeks this year after an ankle injury. As a result, she had lost a lot of training time and race participation.
“You have to look at these performances under the preconditions. However, you can emerge from this event strengthened and with a lot of self-confidence and start preparing for the World Cup, because the World Cup is the big goal of the season,” said Sens. The World Cup will take place in about a month Czech Republic instead. Lobnig’s trainer Kurt Traer added: “She fought really well, gave everything and for the moment she got everything that was possible today.” The Swiss medal candidate Jeannine Gmelin was out before the semi-finals due to a Covid infection.
Julian Schöberl finished fifth in the non-Olympic lightweight singles, well behind the podium places. The Upper Austrian was 21.06 seconds behind the Greek winner Antonios Papakonstantinou. “If you miss the medals in the A final, you’re always a bit disappointed, but I gave everything and tried everything,” said Schöberl. He started in one because his two-person partner Lukas Reim had canceled due to a Covid disease. Valentina Cavallar/Lara Tiefenthaler came fourth in the LG double sculls in the B final and were tenth overall.
Source: Nachrichten
