“If someone had told me that before, I would have said you’re crazy,” said Reitshammer after his race, in which the 28-year-old broke the magical “sound barrier” of 27 seconds with 26.94 seconds. “The competition is really strong, the density is high.” All in all, Reitshammer improved his personal record by 39 hundredths of a second and almost jumped onto the World Championship podium.
However, there will only be celebrations after the title fights, before that the relay over 4 x 100 m individual medley is still on the program for Reitshammer in Budapest on Saturday. For Auböck, however, the world championships are already over. But before the 25-year-old from Lower Austria finally returns home at the weekend after a long absence, he will slip into the role of a fan in the Duna Arena and cheer on his teammates.
“I will stay until the end, cheer for the team. They did that for me and I will do that for them as well,” said Auböck after his last World Championship race on Monday. The short course world champion, who is studying in Loughborough, England and is about to graduate with a master’s degree, will then return to Lower Austria: “It’s so important that I come home because I’m away all year.”
The 25-year-old misses his grandma and grandpa enormously: “Then I can see my grandparents. It’s difficult when you live somewhere else, because you know very well that they’re getting old and you don’t see them that often anymore.” That’s why he’s really looking forward to the days at home. “Unfortunately, you can’t make up for the time, but you can use it as well as possible.”
WM robbed Aubock a lot of strength
The Lower Austrian will spend a week with his family, then the full focus will be on the European Championships in Rome in mid-August. During the preparation, the focus should be on mental recovery. The World Cup robbed him of “so much strength” and “certainly two years” of his life, he said and laughed. In any case, the competition classification with so many crawl competitions in a row was “stupid”.
At the European Championship, however, Auböck will not try to achieve something under duress. Rather, he received confirmation at the title fights in the Hungarian capital that he is one of the absolute world leaders in a world sport. “I needed this competition to show myself that I can be up there in the 200 m freestyle,” he said after finishing fifth in the final, where again only 13 hundredths of a second were missing from bronze. In fourth place, he missed a medal by 27 hundredths of a second in the 400 m crawl.
Auböck and Reitshammer see potential for improvement
Despite missing out on the podium, Auböck was more than satisfied, especially since he clearly undercut his Austrian records over his parade distance of 400 m crawl and the shorter distance. Where is there still room for improvement? “It has nothing to do with endurance for me. My speed is a bit behind,” he explained, emphasizing: “The better the 200 m, the better the 400 m will be.” Auböck also buried his ambitions over the long distance over 1,500 m, in the future he will concentrate fully place on the 200 m, 400 m and 800 m.
Reitshammer also sees room for improvement with regard to the European Championships in August and upcoming major events. “It’s little things. When I dive in at the start, I still kick in with my feet, that works better,” says Reitshammer. He could also improve the reaction time. After the diving move, which according to the sprint specialist was “relatively okay”, Reitshammer was even at the top in the World Cup final. “The goal would still be that I stay in front after the diving train,” he said and grinned: “I’m still working on that.”
