Career
Brandl, however, failed to advance into the final, as he placed twentieth out of 37 swimmers in the evening preliminaries. Three days later, Brandl swam on the second leg of the men"s 4 × 200 m freestyle relay, recording his fastest individual-split time of 1:46.45. Brandl and his teammates Markus Rogan, Dominik Koll, and Florian Janistyn finished heat two in fifth place and ninth overall, for another Austrian record time of 7:11.45.
At the 2009 FINA World Championships in Rome, Italy, Brandl set an Austrian record in the 400 m freestyle, lowering his time to 3:47.61.
He finished twenty-fifth in the 400 m freestyle, and twenty-second in the 800 m freestyle, posting his slowest possible time of 3:54.73 and 8:05.66, respectively. He challenged seven other competitors on the third heat of his only individual event, including Canada"s Blake Worsley and Israel"s Nimrod Shapira Bar-Or.
He came only in fifth place by 0.68 of a second ahead of Tunisia"s Ahmed Mathlouthi, with a time of 1:49.00. Brandl, however, failed to advance into the semifinals, as he placed twenty-seventh out of 41 swimmers in the morning"s preliminary heats.
Two days later, Brandl reunited with his teammates Rogan, Janistyn, and Christian Scherübl for the men"s 4 × 200 m freestyle relay.
Swimming the lead-off leg, Brandl recorded a time of 1:49.80, and the Austrian team went on to finish heat two in eighth place and sixteenth overall, for a total time of 7:17.94.