Swimming World Championship
Felix Auböck made it into the final over 400 m freestyle on Saturday at the Long Track World Championships in Budapest with the best time in the lead-up. The 25-year-old also improved his OSV record on his parade route by eight hundredths of a second to 3:43.83 minutes and was clearly faster than the competition in the Duna Arena. With that, Auböck can hope for a medal. The decision will be made today in the final from 6:02 p.m. (Livestream in tvthek.orf.at).
The Australian Elijah Winnington was 0.59 seconds behind in second, Guilherme Costa (+0.69) from Brazil and the German favorite Lukas Märtens (+1.21) did not come close to the time of Auböck either. “I’m there to place myself as best as possible. I did the target,” said Auböck: “I’m happy about the best time and can take that with me to the final.”
There, 13 is said to be his lucky number. “This was my twelfth 400 m freestyle race that I swam in Budapest,” explained Auböck, which is why his feeling in the pool is so good. The freestyle specialist went a little slower on lane five, only to overtake his competitors in the end. “You have to stay calm and still swim your own race,” emphasized the Lower Austrian. He did not want to reveal whether the medal played a role in Auböck’s thoughts. “The final is here, I’ll keep to myself what the next step looks like,” he said. He’s aiming for a personal best again.
Bucher and Reitshammer in the semifinals
Auböck is the Austrian figurehead at the World Cup in the Hungarian capital. Last December he was crowned short course world champion in Abu Dhabi. At the Olympic Games in Tokyo, the Lower Austrian had just missed out on a medal in fourth over 400 m crawl. At the EM 2020, Auböck won silver in the Duna Arena in Budapest.
Simon Bucher also improved his Austrian record over 50 m dolphin in 23.51 seconds by twelve hundredths of a second and qualified as heat 14th. somewhat unexpected for Saturday night’s semifinals. Bernhard Reitshammer made it to the semi-finals in 1:00.66 minutes in 15th place over 100m breaststroke. Lena Kreundl finished 21st over 200 m individual medley in 2:15.31 minutes and, like Marlene Kahler over 400 m crawl in 4:12.55, missed the final session as 17th.
