The Upper Austrian Martin Espernberger confidently reached the semi-finals as fourth fastest at the 200 m dolphin swimming world championships in Doha in 1:56.26 minutes. Bernhard Reitshammer also achieved the ascent in the 50 m breaststroke in 27.47 seconds and came in 14th in the semifinals. further. Felix Auböck was eliminated in the 800 m freestyle in 7:57.63 minutes as only 26th, Iris Julia Berger in the 200 m freestyle in 2:00.20 in 20th place.
Espernberger stayed more than 1.5 seconds above his best time, but still sees reserves. “It was a very easy swim,” said the 20-year-old, but also admitted that “some of the big names” were missing. “With that time you would have just made it to the semi-finals at the last World Cup. That’s a really big difference. The final here will still be close. You probably need 1:55 low. I’m going to do it the same way I did in the preliminary run – take it easy and then pick it up a notch.” “Very important for me” Reitshammer made the climb on the third attempt after failing to live up to expectations over the Olympic distances of 100 m breaststroke and 100 m backstroke . “That was very important for me, very important for motivation and for attitude. And it’s very liberating, I’m really happy.” Since the field is “extremely close”, the Tyrolean has a chance of reaching the final. Auböck stayed around twelve seconds above his Austrian record. He came seventh in the 800 m final at the 2021 Olympics, and was now more than ten seconds away from reaching the final. This was the third disappointment for the 27-year-old in Qatar, after he came last in the final in the 400 m freestyle and last in the semifinals in the 200 m freestyle. “It wasn’t what I had hoped for. It started off quite well, but something didn’t work.”Looking for the mistake He “never really got up to racing pace” over the 800. He didn’t want to simply forget the World Cup, but wanted to find out what the mistake was in the preparation. “Because it is so clearly wrong that a big mistake must have happened,” said Auböck. “But I’ve been through this so many times and I know I can come back strong. Of course that annoys me, but I’m not desperate. Learn from it and then do better at the European Championships and the Olympics.” World Cup debutant Berger set a personal best time of 2:00.20 minutes, so she could be happy with that. In terms of placement, she would have speculated with the semi-finals of the Top 16, but around eight tenths were missing. “Next time then. I definitely confirmed my performance,” explained Berger. “You can still push it for the relay. The feeling at the World Cup is completely different to other competitions. I’m satisfied and happy.”
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