After Martin Espernberger, Simon Bucher also excelled at the World Championships in Doha and won silver in the 100 meter dolphin. Nobody takes this precious metal away from him, it fulfills his dreams and is an incentive for further events. However, the time, 51.17 seconds, has a lot of room for improvement.
The Tyrolean Simon Bucher is swimming vice world champion in the 100 m dolphin. The 23-year-old achieved his greatest success to date on the long course of the Doha title fights on Saturday, coming within a tenth of his OSV record in 51.28 seconds. The title went to the Portuguese Diogo Matos Ribeiro in 51.17, the third-placed Pole Jakub Majerski distanced Bucher by 0.04 seconds. On Wednesday, the Upper Austrian Martin Espernberger took bronze in the 200 m dolphin.
Bucher was in third place at the turn, threatened to fall out of the medal positions on the second pitch, but showed a good finish with a good touch. Ultimately, he was only 0.11 seconds short of the first Austrian long track world championship title. “I can not find any words. I am so happy about my first (World Cup; note) medal. The last 15m were very hard, but we trained very hard for it. And here I am.” The mother of the athlete training in Linz witnessed her son’s triumph in the hall, and Bucher’s teammates were also gathered in the stands.
GEPA pictures / Philipp Brem GEPA pictures / Philipp Brem GEPA pictures / Philipp Brem GEPA pictures / Philipp Brem
One of them is Bernhard Reitshammer. Bucher’s close compatriot finished 31st in the 50 backstroke in the morning with a time of 26.33 seconds. On Sunday, the OSV will be fighting for an Olympic quota place in the 4 x 100 medley, with Reitshammer, Bucher, Valentin Bayer and Heiko Gigler taking part.
The world of numbers
The dolphin specialists Martin Espernberger and Simon Bucher won the seventh and eighth OSV medals in the history of the World Swimming Championships on the long course at the title fights in Doha. Espernberger’s coup on Wednesday in the 200 m Delfin was the fourth in bronze, Bucher’s sensational performance on Saturday (100 m) was the fourth in silver. The OSV is still waiting for gold; Markus Rogan has already achieved it on the short course in 2008 and Felix Auböck in 2021.
In terms of the number of medals, the Doha World Cup is the second most successful for Austria to date. Things only went better in Fukuoka in 2001, when Maxim Podoprigora (200 m breaststroke) and Markus Rogan (200 m backstroke) celebrated never-before-achieved OSV results. Bucher and Espernberger secured the first long course World Championship medals for Austria in the dolphin style and Bucher secured the first podium finish not achieved in a 200 m distance.
In contrast to Espernberger, Bucher trains at ASV Linz, which puts a stop to constant prophecies of doom that talents have to go abroad to achieve something. The Tyrolean, 23, achieved his greatest success in 51.28 seconds and came within a tenth of his OSV record. The title went to the Portuguese Diogo Ribeiro in 51.17 seconds. To put it into perspective: there are a few stars missing in Doha, the time isn’t great, and no one will take this silver away from him. In 2020, the American Caleb Dressel won Olympic gold in Tokyo in 49.45 seconds. Bucher’s time would have been enough for eighth place.
Bucher was still eleven hundredths short of Austria’s first World Cup gold on the long track. “I can not find any words. I’m so happy.”
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