Horst/Hörl without a win

Out in the group stage – “that hurts!”

Beach star Alex Horst still has to give everything for the Olympic dream.(Bild: Florian Schroetter)

Most recently in Xiamen, with the quarter-finals in sight, they were eliminated in the round of 16, this time in Brasilia they were knocked out in the preliminary round - Austria's top beach volleyball duo Alex Horst and Julian Hörl are not spoiled by success at the moment. Bitter, because they are still in contention for an Olympic ticket. 

That's tough! Austria's top duo Alex Horst/Julian Hörl wanted to take another step towards qualifying for the Olympics at the elite tournament in Brasilia. Instead, they lost their three preliminary round matches against Ehlers/Wickler (D), Grimalt/Grimalt (Chi) and Brouwer/Meeuwsen (Hol) 0:2 and had to pack their bags early as the last team in their group. The Grimalt-Cousins are probably the direct opponents to make it to Paris via the world rankings - now they lost to them again, just like in Xiamen. "Unfortunately, we weren't able to play at the level we wanted," said Horst from Vienna. "You could definitely see and feel the strain of traveling over the last few months. Of course it hurts!"

Horst (right) and Hörl (left) were in good spirits in training with the Dutch.(Bild: Hörl/Horst)

Partner Julian Hörl also sighed, although things had looked promising in training with the top seeds Boermans/DeGroot: "It was really hard to keep our concentration. We have to recharge our batteries and attack again at the last tournaments in Espinho, Stare Jablonki and Ostrava!" In order to make it to the Olympic tournament in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. But the team actually wanted to extend their lead over their closest rivals in the rankings in Brazil's capital.