2023-07-28 04:26:33
The Friday heats at the swimming world championships in Fukuoka were disappointing for Austria’s team. Unexpectedly, Simon Bucher missed the semifinals over 100 m dolphin, the seventh of the dolphin sprint remained in 52.27 seconds 1.09 seconds above his OSV record and was only 26. Lena Grabowski from Burgenland missed the semifinals of the top 16 200 m backstroke in 2:12.79 min. as 20th, the Carinthian Heiko Gigler only managed 50 m crawl 22.46 sec. to place 36.
Bucher has relatives in Japan who came and had already bought tickets for the final session. “I’m really sorry,” said the 23-year-old, “extremely disappointed. The way the World Cup started with the 50s, I would have expected a lot more.” In June 2022 in Budapest, he finished sixth at the World Championships over this distance and is now actually aiming for a medal. But then not much happened. “It got much too hard on the second 50s. I mightn’t get out the back and in the end I mightn’t get my arms out of the water.”
The goal of a medal is very far away and it is no consolation that he already bought the Olympic ticket in March. “If I swim there like that, I don’t even have to go there,” Bucher looked ahead to Paris 2024 a year ahead. “Now I’m putting everything into the relay. We want to reach the final here and at the end the Olympic qualification.” That’s what it’s all regarding on Sunday over 4 x 100 m individual medley in the only remaining competition with red-white-red participation. Gigler will also be there, for him his two individual appearances did not go according to plan.
If Bucher missed the semifinals by 0.51 seconds, it was 0.41 seconds and 22.05 seconds for him to climb up, which is exactly Gigler’s OSV record. The desired Olympic qualification was 0.50 seconds away, Gigler was only 36th over 100 m crawl. “22.4 is not the time I flew to Japan for,” said the 27-year-old. For the season, Gigler promised “full attack, even if Valentin Bayer and Bernhard Reitshammer have not been convincing in Japan so far. “If we’re in the callroom together, then we’ll get it baked.”
Ultimately, only Bucher from the OSV team came close to his best time in these title fights, fixing the 50 m Delfin OSV record. Nothing was to be expected from Grabowski following a personally difficult year in this direction, she was 0.85 seconds short of the semi-finals. “That’s what I can do at the moment. I’m not extremely disappointed, I’m just being realistic.” Grabowski sees it as a basis to go for the Olympic limit next season. That was 2.40 seconds away on Friday.
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