European swimming champion Felix Abach may not make another appearance at the Olympic Games in Paris. After the Lower Austrian finished 24th in the 400m freestyle on Saturday, well short of her national record, she decided not to take part in the opening session of the 200m freestyle on Sunday morning due to symptoms. Meanwhile, Bernhard Reitshammer finished 36th in the 100m backstroke with a time of 55.13 seconds.
This meant that Tyrolean faced the expected elimination, having reached the semi-finals of the 100m breaststroke the previous day and finished in 15th place. The backstroke is crucial for Reitshammer in next Saturday’s medley relay, where he will be the opening swimmer and compete with Valentin Bayer, Simon Bucher and Heiko Giegler for a place in the Olympic final. “I knew things could get better as the hours of practice got better and better,” Reitshammer said of his time. “I felt it from the first pitch.”
However, the initial load of the breaststroke semi-final is not perfect preparation for the backstroke preliminaries. “By the time we got to the village, had food and went to the apartment, it was after midnight,” the 30-year-old said. “As I do before every important race, I took a lot of caffeine. I was up before 2 in the morning. I woke up again at 7:30 in the morning. It’s not ideal, but things will be different before the relay.” Until then, he will continue to take care of his health and use masks available at the Olympic Village.
Corona test negative in Auböck
Abach had to pass early in the game. “Overnight we had headaches and sore throats,” explained OSV sports director Walter Barr. “He’s in bed and we’ll decide in the afternoon what to do next.” Three corona tests were negative, Barr insisted on ORF, but the athlete was in the same room. After the 400m heat, she was 7.26 seconds off her record, Abach said her training times from Tuesday had already worsened.
Bär said in the APA interview that doctors had seen Auböck. “The temperature, the red throat, it could be many things. It’s definitely more than a simple cold, maybe a flu-like infection,” said the official. Performance over 400 meters was to be expected. Bär: “Of course you grasp at every straw and believe in miracles.” Selection is the most important factor. A week or few days without training at that stage is not good.
Five weeks ago in Belgrade, Abach was crowned European champion in the 400m freestyle by more than four seconds. With his European Championship mark of 3:43.24 minutes, he would have finished sixth in Saturday’s Olympic final. Of course, in recent weeks he was hoping to deliver a faster time at La Defense Arena than he did in Belgrade. The Olympic bronze medalist’s time was 0.74 seconds better than Abac’s time in Belgrade. Bear: “We watchers are disappointed. But with him you have to multiply it by 1,000 times.
