At the latest, the bronze medal in the 4×100 meter medley relay on Wednesday put a satisfied smile on the face of Austria’s sports director Walter Bär. Because in addition to the two medals – Felix Auböck had previously finished third in the 200 meter freestyle – the OSV athletes had swum to the top positions in a range that had not been known for years.
“A few years ago we were happy to be able to swim in the afternoon (in the final session, note). Now we have ten finals,” Bär calculated. Valentin Bayer (twice) and Auböck as fourth and Simon Bucher as twice fifth were just behind the podium. Reitshammer swam twice in the individual finals (sixth and eighth). So it was fitting that Bayer, Bucher and Reitshammer, together with crawl specialist Heiko Gigler, rewarded themselves with the first Austrian relay medal since the 2008 European Championships. At that time, Austria’s golden generation of swimmers with Markus Rogan, Dinko Jukic, David Brandl and Dominik Koll came in third over 4×200 meters. With the prevailing breadth in the OSV team, a new successful era could begin. This does not want to be satisfied with bronze medals. “We’ll definitely be hearing the Austrian anthem a few times in the near future,” announced Bucher after winning the medal.
While it was a medal premiere for the ASV Linz athlete, his club colleague Reitshammer already knows the bronze medal from the short course at the European Championships. “It’s even more fun with the relay. The feeling is awesome,” said the 28-year-old. He hopes to be able to experience this feeling more often. The demands in the Austrian swimming camp have increased noticeably – also with a view to the World Championships in Fukuoka in 2023. Seven OSV activists have already achieved limits for the high point of next year, and the relays over 4×100 meter individual medley for men and over 4×200 meter freestyle for women should also compete. This upswing should continue until the 2024 Olympics in Paris. Even if the qualification period does not start until March 2023, Auböck (200 and 400 meters crawl) and Bucher (100 meters dolphin) are already below the norm.
Fat synchronous yield
In an overall EM balance, red-white-red showed six medals three days before the end of the title fights, in terms of number of the 35 editions before that only Eindhoven 2008 was more successful with eight. Mainly responsible for this result are the Alexandri sisters Anna-Maria and Eirini-Marina in a duet and Vasiliki in a solo with two silver medals and two bronze medals in synchronized swimming. Another increase in diving or open water swimming by Sunday would be a sensation. (pue)
Source: Nachrichten
