Wednesday, October 20, 2021

Perfect start to the World Track Cycling Championships
Third world record leads to German gold

World record in qualifying, world record in semi-finals, world record in final: With an outstanding performance, the sprinters of the German team lead to the well-deserved gold medal at the World Track Cycling Championships. Men surprise with silver and finish the five-year waiting period.

The sprinters of the German team gave the German Cycling Federation (BDR) a perfect start at the World Track Championships in Roubaix. Defending champions Emma Hinze, Pauline Grabosch and Lea Sophie Friedrich won gold in 46.064 seconds in the final against Russia and improved the world record for the third time in a few hours. Bronze went to the trio from Great Britain, who beat Japan in the race for third place.

The beginning of the dream is extremely valuable for the somewhat damaged self-confidence recently, even if the two strongest opponents were missing in the European champion Holland and the Olympic champion China. The world record show, the third and last one was 46.064 seconds, it is a relative thing: there were not many references, as the team sprint has only been done with three women instead of two since this year. However, national coach Detlef Uibel was almost overwhelmed: “In my wildest dreams I would not have expected us to win gold with three world records.”

Because even before the final, Hinze, Grabosch and Friedrich had doubled down on their ambitions. The trio from the German Cycling Federation (BDR) improved the qualifying world record set by Dutch women at the European Championships two weeks ago in Grenchen, Switzerland to 46.511 seconds. In the semi-finals, the trio improved and set the fastest time again at 46.358 seconds. Then came the coronation in the final.

At last year’s World Championships in Berlin, Hinze had already triumphed in the team sprint with Grabosch and won a total of three gold medals. In Roubaix I also want to compete in Sprint and Keirin. At the Tokyo Olympics, Hinze made sure of the team sprint with Friedrich Silber. Hinze had previously emphasized that it was about “having more fun and really enjoying it. I’m not doing this to show everyone that I can always win gold.” The fun was remarkable this time.

In the men’s team sprint, former world champions Joachim Eilers, Stefan Bötticher and Nik Schröter also won the bronze medal somewhat surprisingly. With a time of 43.141 seconds he also defeated Russia in the race for third place. It was the first medal in a world championship in this discipline since 2016. Gold went to the Netherlands, Olympic and world champions, who stayed one step ahead of France, third place Olympic.