Bucher, Auboeck & Edl Rack Up Solid Performances At 2024 Graz Trophy

2024 AUSTRIAN GRAZ TROPHY

• Thursday, April 18th – Sunday, April 21st
• Graz, Austria
• LCM (50m)
• Results

The 2024 Austrian Graz Trophy wrapped up last night with multiple swimmers making waves over the course of the 4-day competition.

One of them was 27-year-old Heiko Gigler who nailed a new national record in the men’s 100m free.

As we reported, Gigler led off his squad’s men’s 4x100m free relay with a new lifetime best of 48.36. His time overtook his previous Austrian standard of 48.43 put on the books in the heats of the 2022 European Championships. You can read more about this achievement here.

23-year-old Simon Bucher topped the men’s 100m fly podium, getting under the World Aquatics Olympic Qualification Time once again in the process.

Bucher stopped the clock in 51.53 (23.89/27.64), coming within striking distance of his season-best 51.28 notched for silver at this year’s World Championships. Both outings cleared the OQT of 51.67 needed for this summer’s Olympic Games.

Bucher also won the men’s 50m fly event, registering 23.59 for the gold. That’s just off the 23.53 he produced in the heats of the race in Doha.

Former University of Michigan Wolverine Felix Auboeck dove in on multiple occasions to reap a solid medal haul.

Auboeck swept the men’s freestyle events, putting up the following results:

• 200m free – 1:48.61
• 400m free – 3:50.17
• 800m free – 7:57.16
• 1500m free – 15:22.11

Per the Austrian Swimming Federation, Auboeck revealed he will be returning to his native country to train in the lead-up for Paris. He’ll be stationed at the Südstadt training center under coach Balazs Fehervari, leaving the Loughborough facility where he’s been training since 2020.

Auboeck said of his decision, “I have a lot of confidence that I will get the necessary support and the right training with Balazs Fehervari, especially in the southern part of the city, to be successful at the Olympic Games.

“Essentially, I knew that if I wanted to get to a final in Paris, I needed a change in training. I had to do that now.

“The games are the big goal and the 400 is the most important competition for me. This is also the distance that I like the most and where I feel most comfortable. But it is also a race where there is a lot of competition and the times are getting faster and faster.”

Auboeck owns a 400m free lifetime best of 3:43.58 from placing 4th in the event at the 2022 World Championships. In Fukuoka last year the 27-year-old clocked a time of 3:44.14 in the prelims before settling for 8th overall with 3:44.33 in the final. Both outings easily cleared the OQT of 3:46.78.

Additional Notes

• Promising 17-year-old Lukas Edl took down 2 individual Austrian Junior Records. The teen clocked 49.79 as lead-off on his squad’s men’s 4x100m free relay. That represented his first-ever foray under the 50-second barrier, surpassing his previous PB of 50.18 from the Multinations Junior Meet earlier this month. Edl’s other junior record came in the 50m free where he nabbed a new PB of 23.03, bettering the 23.28 from the same previous competition.
• Czech swimmer Barbora Seemanova was a double freestyle winner, taking the 200m and 400m distances. She punched a time of 1:56.54 in the former and 4:08.52 in the latter. She already ranks 8th in the world in the 200m free, courtesy of the 1:55.59 season-best turned in at the Rotterdam Qualification Meet. Her season-best in the 400m free remains at the 4:06.09 turned in at the Budapest World Cup.