Swimming: Auböck made it safely into the World Cup final in the 400 m freestyle

With a strong finish, he clocked 3:45.53 minutes on Saturday. In the women’s 200 m individual medley, Lena Kreundl made it into the 16 men’s semifinals in eleventh place in 2:14.03. Bernhard Reitshammer missed the 100 m breaststroke by 0.03 seconds, Simon Bucher missed the dolphin sprint via swim-off. The final session begins at 5:00 p.m. CET.

According to his own statements, Auböck overslept the initial phase of his heat a little, but in the last 100 m he rolled up the field. Only the German Lukas Märtens (3:44.77) was ahead of him, the fastest overall was the Australian Elijah Winnington (3:44.37). “It was a good first run. Definitely swim faster and attack my best time (3:43.58, note),” said Auböck, his motto for the final run. “The 400 m final is for 5:02 p.m. CEST and thus the first medal decision in these long course competitions.

For Kreundl, who came third in the short course European Championships over this distance, it is the first ever long course World Championship semi-final, but the Upper Austrian was not entirely satisfied despite her personal best of the season. “Today’s race didn’t feel quite as fluid. I would say the chances of making it to the final (6:01 p.m., note) are slim, but there. I’ll fight for that.”

Bucher’s missing the 50m semifinal was unexpected, even though the 100m dolphin is his main event. First, the Tyrolean was 0.48 seconds above his Austrian record in 23.53 seconds. In a three-way swim-off for a promotion spot, Bucher finished second, 0.12 seconds behind Tzen Teon of Singapore, in 23.54. “I’m already disappointed. I can’t say exactly what it was. It didn’t feel that bad,” explained the 23-year-old. In the 100 m competition on Friday he wanted to “go all out again.”

Reitshammer remained clearly above the national record in the middle breaststroke distance in 1:00.50 minutes (18th) and, with a distance of 1.01 seconds, even more clearly above the Olympic standard. He also said that he actually felt quite good in the water. “It’s really hard to say what it was. I’m pretty disappointed,” said the short course European champion in the 100 m individual medley. He now has to discuss his World Cup timetable around the fixed relay assignment with the coach.

On the sidelines of the competitions, the 2029 World Championships were awarded to Beijing. Medals will be on the line in Singapore in 2025 and Budapest in 2027. The two-year rhythm with the title fights in odd years was disrupted by the corona pandemic.