The Austrian men’s medley relay over 4 x 100 m finished eleventh at the swimming world championships in Fukuoka on Sunday. In 3:34.58 minutes, Bernhard Reitshammer (backstroke), Valentin Bayer (breaststroke), Simon Bucher (dolphin) and Heiko Gigler (crawler) were 1.31 seconds short of the targeted place in the final. However, this placement also means eleventh place in a half-time ranking in qualifying for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, for which there are 16 starting places.
In the last OSV appearance in these title fights, Austria stayed 1.78 seconds above the national record set in Rome last August in the heats contested by 24 teams and won by the USA when they reached the European Championship bronze. This mark would have meant eighth place this time and entry into the final.
Olympic race remains tight
Part two of the qualification will take place at the next World Championships in February 2024 in Doha. Since the medal winners from Fukuoka will then already have their tickets, they have to be among the other 13 fastest teams in a combined time ranking of the two title fights. The Portuguese, in 16th place, were 1.05 seconds slower than the Austrians this time, and the Brazilians, who were injured at the same time as the OSV troop, were disqualified because of a false start.
