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The Katharina Liensberger, Stephanie Brunner, Fabio Gstrein and Adrian Pertl quartet started with a clear round of 16 victory against Belgium, but then had to admit defeat to the Swedes in the next round. Liensberger and Pertl won their duels, Brunner and Gstrein lost. As a result, when the score was 2: 2, the sum of the fastest times decided for the Scandinavians.
“The fact is that Sweden was faster than us. The disappointment is already great, ”said ÖSV men’s head coach Andreas Puelacher after the surprisingly early departure of the number two team behind Switzerland. “I would have expected more because of the lineup.”
Deja-Vu four years after St. Moritz
It was only the second time that Austria remained medalless in a team competition after the 2017 World Cup in St. Moritz. Parallel world champion Liensberger and Co. initially celebrated a 4-0 victory against Belgium. But then, like four years ago, when the ÖSV team had also beaten the Belgians in the round of 16 (3-1), the final against the Swedes.
Austria is eliminated against Sweden
In the quarterfinals of the World Cup, Austria ended up playing Sweden in St. Moritz four years ago.
After Brunner had clearly lost the opening match against Sara Hector by 0.60 seconds, Pertl (0.71 faster than Mattias Rönngren) and Liensberger (0.36 faster than Estelle Alphand) put Austria 2-1. But in the end Gstrein clearly lost by 0.65 seconds to Kristoffer Jakobsen, who also set the maximum time with 21.40 seconds, which meant that the ÖSV quartet had a total of 0.39 seconds behind.
Self-criticism of Gstrein and Brunner
Gstrein was upset about his losing streak: “It’s stupid if I’m the last to drive and have to fix it, and then you screw it up. It’s a shame. “Brunner also practiced self-criticism:” That’s very annoying. Tried everything but got stuck with the edge. I was just too slow, otherwise we could have done it with a faster time. “
Liensberger lamented a bit after his second World Cup medal in 24 hours. “It’s a shame, of course we expected more. We did our best, but the Swedes really did a good job. You saw that everything is possible in this competition, everything is possible. Hopefully it works better next time. “
“The anger is already very great, without a doubt we would have planned more. Unfortunately, Sweden was better, “said Pertl.” My second race was good, including the weather. But the Swede was again two tenths faster. Today was a bit better on the tracks than yesterday, but the red track was faster again. “
“Whoever is faster on the red field wins”
As in the parallel competition on Tuesday, the two courses were not equivalent. The vast majority of duels were won in the red field, so the best times were often decided after a 2: 2, especially those in the red field. “Today it is almost impossible to win again on the blue track,” said ORF expert Thomas Sykora in his analysis of the course of the race. “Whoever is faster on the red field wins.”
