Wednesday 20th October 2021
Perfect start at the World Track Cycling Championships
Third world record leads to German gold
World record in the qualification, world record in the semi-finals, world record in the final: With an outstanding performance, the German team sprinters drive to the well-deserved gold medal at the Track Cycling World Championships. The men surprise with silver and end the five-year waiting period.
The German team sprinters gave the Federation of German Cyclists (BDR) a perfect start at the World Track Championships in Roubaix. The 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 within a few hours. Bronze went to the trio from Great Britain, which prevailed against Japan in the race for third place.
The start of the dream has a lot of value for the recently somewhat damaged self-confidence, even if the two strongest opponents were missing in the European champions Netherlands and Olympic champions China. The world record show – the third and last time was 46.064 seconds – is somewhat relative: There weren’t many references, as the team sprint has only been held with three women instead of two since this year. Nevertheless, national coach Detlef Uibel was almost overwhelmed: “In my wildest dreams I would not have expected that we would win gold with three world records.”
Because even before the final, Hinze, Grabosch and Friedrich had doubled their ambitions. The trio of the Federation of German Cyclists (BDR) improved the qualifying world record set by the Dutch women at the European Championships two weeks ago in Grenchen (Switzerland) to 46.511 seconds. In the semifinals, the trio went one better and set the fastest time again to 46.358 seconds. Then came the coronation in the finals.
At the World Championships in Berlin last year, Hinze had already triumphed in the team sprint together with Grabosch and won a total of three gold medals. In Roubaix, too, I want to compete in the Sprint and Keirin. At the Olympic Games in Tokyo, Hinze secured himself in the team sprint with Friedrich Silber. Hinze had previously emphasized that it was “about having more fun and really enjoying it. I don’t do this to prove to everyone that I can win gold every time.” The fun was noticeable this time.
In the men’s team sprint, ex-world champions Joachim Eilers, Stefan Bötticher and Nik Schröter also won the bronze medal somewhat surprisingly. With a time of 43.141 seconds they also defeated Russia in the race for third place. It was the first world championship medal in this discipline since 2016. Gold went to Olympic and world champion Netherlands, who kept one step ahead of Olympic third-placed France.