For our beach players

Things are getting tight in the battle for the Olympics due to corona

Three tournaments still offer Vienna's Alex Horst and his partner Julian Hörl the opportunity to secure their ticket to the Olympics in Paris with more points. But now the beach volleyball players have suffered a major setback: the Salzburg player has been diagnosed with corona! Although Hörl is already back on the training court, the first of the three tournaments will take place on Wednesday without our beach players.

"Apparently that still exists. What can you do?" Vienna's beach volleyball ace Alex Horst shook his head when he found out about his partner Julian Hörl's coronavirus diagnosis. As a result, the two will not be taking part in the Elite 16 tournament in Espinho (Por) from Wednesday.

The Salzburg native stayed in bed at the weekend and was back at the training center in Vienna for the first time yesterday: "I exercised for half an hour, sweated a lot, and now things are looking up again."

Now there must be no more complications in the hot qualifying finish for Paris at the tournaments in the Czech Republic and Poland. The Chileans (only on the waiting list in Espinho) have gained further ground in the duel with the Grimalt-Cousins by winning the South American championships. "Now we're tied on points, but we're ahead because we have the better individual result," the two calculate.

Normally, Austria or Chile end up with the last Olympic spot. Unless the Cubans ranked behind them don't travel to Poland, in which case Austria and Chile will go through. Long story short: "The decision will be made in Poland or the Czech Republic," says Alex Horst.