Auböck finished eighth in the 400 m freestyle at the World Championships in Doha

The Lower Austrian, who reached the medal decision in fifth place, swam behind in the final on Sunday and only came eighth. South Korea’s Kim Woo-min won gold. Lena Kreundl is in the 16m semifinals of the women’s 200 m individual medley. Bernhard Reitshammer missed the 100 m breaststroke as did Simon Bucher in the dolphin sprint.

Auböck had wanted to attack his best time (3:43.58 minutes) in the final, but that failed completely. If he was still sixth after 100 m, the OSV athlete fell back to eighth and last position after four lanes and maintained this position until the end. The Austrian finished in 3:51.60 minutes, almost nine seconds behind winner Kim (3:42.71). Silver went to the Australian Elijah Winnington (3:42.86), bronze to the German Lukas Märtens (3:42.96).

Kreundl wants to fight

For Kreundl, who came third in the short course European Championships in the 200 m individual medley, it is the first ever long course World Championship semi-final, but the Upper Austrian was not entirely satisfied despite her personal best time of the season (2:14.03 minutes). “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 “pretty disappointed”

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. However, he only missed the climb by 0.03 seconds. Reitshammer 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.