European Swimming Championships

Auböck fastest in the preliminary heat and into the 400 m final

Felix Auböck dominated the preliminary heat of the 400 m crawl at the European Swimming Championships in Belgrade on Sunday. The Lower Austrian won his heat in 3:48.86 minutes and was thus more than a second faster than the entire competition. The 27-year-old can therefore speculate with precious metal in the final in the evening (19.23 hrs). The OSV men's relay team also made it to the final in the 4 x 100 m medley and is on course for a medal. 

For Auböck, his only competition start in Belgrade is primarily a form check for the Olympics and to gain self-confidence. He achieved this with an excellent start, clearly in control of his preliminary heat. "I'm very happy, it was a really good preliminary run. I was even able to take some speed out at the end to save something for the evening," summed up the 2021 Olympic silver medallist, who was also happy with his time.

Auböck, who has recently worked a lot on his technique, still has a lot planned for the final. "It's another final, another chance to win a medal. You first have to position yourself like this and I've managed to do that." The remaining ÖSV athletes in the 400 m crawl clearly missed the finals. Moritz Baumgartner finished 23rd in 4:01.12 minutes, while Johanna Enkner (4:20.36) and Lena Opatril (4:21.23) came 15th and 17th in the women's event. Enkner was 2.9 seconds short of a place in the final.

Relay team also goes for a medal
The red-white-red medley relay team, on the other hand, will be going for precious metal in the evening (19:55). The team that came third at the 2022 European Championships in Rome and sixth at the 2024 World Championships in Doha won their heat in 3:35.13 minutes in the tried-and-tested line-up of Bernhard Reitshammer, Valentin Bayer, Simon Bucher and Heiko Gigler, clearly ahead of Poland and Serbia and achieving the second-best time overall. Only Ukraine was faster, winning the other heat in 3:34.35. "We swam good times. Anything can happen in the final," explained Reitshammer.

For Bucher, this is his second medal in Belgrade. "I think we can all give it a bit more and that we can go a long way. To win another medal with the boys would be really cool," said the runner-up in the 50 m dolphin. Gigler was also optimistic. "The cards will be reshuffled in the final. I think we can keep up with the others quite well and put on a good show. It's already looking pretty good because there's still something left in the tank."