2019 ATUS GRAZ TROPHY
- Friday, April 26th – Sunday, April 18th
- Indoor Pool Eggenberg/Auster, Graz, Austria
- LCM
- Austrian 2019 World Championships Selection Criteria
- Entry List
- SwimSwam Meet Preview
- Day 1 Recap
- Live Results
Day 2 Highlights
After an explosive night 1 in Graz in which 4 Austrian National Records bit the dust, Heiko Gigler carried the momentum into night 2 with a new standard in the men’s 50m free.
Entering this Graz Trophy, Gigler’s personal best in the men’s 50m free rested at the 23.05 clocked in July of last year. This morning, however, the 22-year-old ventured into 22-point territory for the very first time, clinching the top seed in a time of 22.60. That logged a new lifetime best, but also a new Austrian National Record, outperforming the previous mark of 22.74 held by Bernhard Reitshammer, the 50m backstroke champion from last night.
Reitshammer clocked 22.82 this morning, while Robin Grunberger snapped up the 3rd see din 22.98. The former wound up scratching the final
Gigler managed to lower his newly-minted personal best yet again come tonight’s final, ultimately hitting the wall in a wining mark of 22.56. That led Grunberger, who earned silver in 22.82, while Maximilian Oswald of Germany took 3rd in 23.14 tied with Alexander Knabl.
For Gigler, although he now enters the Austrian swimming history books, his time fell short of the federation-dictated minimum time standard of 22.40 needed for Gwangju.
With a little extra energy from having scratched the 50m free final, Reitshammer put his respite to good use in the men’s 100m back event. Hitting the wall in 53.90, the man hacked a second from his previous career-fastest mark of 54.90 registered at last year’s European Championships.
Reitshammer now checks-in among the top 20 performers in the world in the event this season and his outing also clears the 54.06 FINA A cut for this summer’s World Championships.
