Martin Espernberger won his Olympic ticket in the 200 m dolphin at the US Open in Greensboro on Saturday. The man from Linz had already undercut the Olympic standard two weeks before, but the meeting had no qualifying status.
Now the athlete studying in the USA was 0.27 seconds below the required mark in 1:55.51 minutes.
Auböck confirms Olympic limit
Meanwhile, Felix Auböck proved that his form was correct. Shortly before the start of the European Short Course Championships, the Lower Austrian once again undercut the Olympic limit on Saturday at the 800 m freestyle qualification meeting in Rotterdam. Auböck covered the distance in the preliminary run in 7:50.93 minutes and stayed under both the Paris limit (7:51.65) and the World Cup limit for the title fights in Doha in February (7:53.11).
With his time, Auböck also got his Olympic ticket for the 10 km open water distance. And he wants to tackle that too. “I think this is a great opportunity,” said the 26-year-old. “It doesn’t take anything away from me because it’s a week after the pool competitions.”
However, he will not prepare specifically for the open water competition. “I’m preparing for the 400 m freestyle as normal,” explained Auböck. In addition, he will probably compete in the 200 m, but in this case he will cancel the 800 m scheduled for the same day.