Day 1
Day one of the Austrian championships was a day for distance swimming with the 400Im, 800m freestyle and 1500m freestyle being contested.
Kick-starting the meet in winning fashion was Jördis Steinegger, who took the women’s 400IM title in a time of 4.48.24 nearly 16 seconds ahead of her closest rival. However her time still remained a fair way off her best of 4.41.33 set nearly four years ago at the 2011 world championships.
In the men’s event there was a much tighter race. The top three finishers all finished on 4.23 seconds but it was Sebastien Steffan in a 4.23.07 that edged out Jakob Maly (4.23.87) and Patrick Staber(4.23.94) to take the win. Steffan’s winning time was more than two seconds faster than his previous best of 4.25.32 set at the 2014 European Junior Championships. Maly, meanwhile may feel disappointed with his time more than four seconds off his 4.19.21 best set at the 2013 World Championships.
Rounding off the wins in tonight’s events were Lisa Zaiser swimming an 8.46.13 in the women’s 800m freestyle. Her time was a new personal best by more than 7 seconds from her previous best of 8.53 set only in May 2015.
Finally, the men’s 1500m freestyle saw 18 year old Lukas Ambros dominate the field to win in a time of 15.42.54, more than a minute clear of second place. The time however still remained over 11 seconds short of his 15.31.44 best set at the 2014 European Junior Championships.
Day 2
Day 2 of the Austrian Championships was a successful day for Lisa Zaiser. She added the 100m breaststroke and 400m freestyle titles to her 800m from day one in times of 1.10.26 and 4.20.04 respectively. Her breaststroke winning time was only half a second away from her best of 1.09.70 set back in 2013 and her 400m freestyle was still nearly 5 seconds from her 4.15 best set back in February of this year. Interestingly her 400 split in the 800 last night of 4.20.58 was only half a second slower than her winning time tonight showing signs of fatigue from her multiple event schedule.
Jördis Steinegger also added to her 400 medley title from day one with a comfortable win in the women’s 200m backstroke. She swam an even split race to win the race in a 2.15.99 going out in a 1.07.24 at the 100 but swam a much faster heat swim of 2:14.82 earlier in the day. Nevertheless both times still remained short of her 2.12.49 best set in April 2014.
The men’s 400m freestyle like the 1500 yesterday only ever had one winner. David Brandl swam a 3.52.94 nearly 7 seconds clear of yesterday’s 400m medley champion Sebastien Steffan (3.59.84). However Brandl still has a lot of work to do to close in on his 2009 best of 3.47.61 set 6 years ago at the Rome World Championships.
Other winners on the night were Birgit Korschischek in the women’s 50m freestyle sprinting to a 25.35 nearly a second clear of the field, Johannes Dietrich in the men’s 100m breaststroke swimming a 1.02.03, winning the finalby over two seconds and finally Sascha Subarsky won the 100m butterfly in a 53.73 just short of his 53.48 best set in April 2015.
Full results can be found here http://www.cis-online.net/?l=en&m=105&c=984&sm=36424