Gold panning in Graz

At the Sport Austria Finals, national champions in various sports are crowned every year. Graz presents itself as proven and fertile ground, which also yields gold for Upper Austrian athletes. Leonore Praxmarer (Fecht-Union Linz) was in top form in the knockout phase of the epee title fights and won, although he suffered a shoulder and elbow injury. “That’s great and a great motivation for the European Championships in Plovdiv, which start in a week’s time,” said the 20-year-old, who had won the semifinals against Paula Schmidl (OÖ Landesfechtklub) 15:13.

In the trampoline championship, the only 17-year-old Amelie Wansch (TV Steyr) stopped the solo of Sara Hekele from Salzburg, who had previously won five titles in a row, with a personal best of 49.380 points in her first elite season. By the way, the two worked together in the dubbing competition and were unbeatable. Wansch’s club colleagues Anna and Finn Markovsky and Lenny Wimmer were top in the junior classes.

In the spectacular roller tobogganing on the Schlossberg, Tina Unterberger from Bad Goisern broke through the male phalanx in doubles and triumphed alongside Styrian Michael Scheikl, in singles the 37-year-old policewoman came second with a respectable margin. “The track was technically extremely demanding. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the time to train more intensively for professional reasons,” explained Unterberger.

Among the wakeboarders, Mariella Flemme was in a class of her own: the 18-year-old from Ottensheim has her fourth consecutive national championship title in her pocket. “It never gets boring,” Flemme said.