After the Lower Austrian had only finished 24th in the 400 m freestyle on Saturday, far behind his national record and in a weakened condition, he decided not to compete in the preliminary session of the 200 m freestyle on Sunday morning due to further symptoms of illness. It also looks bleak for a start on Monday in the 800 m freestyle and on August 9th in the 10 km.
“Headaches and a sore throat developed overnight,” explained OSV sports director Walter Bär. “He’s staying in bed and we’ll decide in the afternoon how to proceed.” After the 400m heats, in which he was 7.26 seconds over his personal best, Auböck said that his training times had already gotten worse from Tuesday onwards. “I actually have a big question mark as to what the problem is,” said the 27-year-old.
“Clinging to every straw”
Bär said in an APA interview that doctors had examined Auböck. “Temperature, red throat, it could be many things. It is certainly more than a simple cold, perhaps a flu infection,” said the official. The result over 400 m was foreseeable. Bär: “Of course you cling to every straw, believe in miracles.” It doesn’t look good for an 800 m start on either, nor for the open water race: “Endurance is the decisive factor there. It’s not good not to train for a week or a few days in that phase.”
Five weeks ago, Auböck was crowned European champion in the 400 m freestyle in Belgrade by more than four seconds. With his time of 3:43.24 minutes, he would have finished sixth in the Olympic final on Saturday evening. Of course, in recent weeks he had been confident that he could deliver a faster time in the La Defense Arena than in Belgrade. The time of the Olympic bronze medalist was 0.74 seconds better than Auböck’s in Belgrade.