- BMX freestyler Nikita Ducarroz falls in both runs in the final and only finishes fifth.
- The wheel track four is also empty.
- The rowing delegation was able to convince almost all of the time on Friday.
Bike: BMX rider Ducarroz not rewarded for risk
On her 26th birthday, Nikita Ducarroz had to bury her medal dreams in BMX freestyle. The Geneva native, who grew up in the USA, did not finish either of the two runs in the Munich Freestyle Park and ultimately had to settle for 5th place. In the first attempt, the defending champion and Olympic bronze medalist fell after a good start while spinning one and a half times around her own axis. In the second run she therefore risked everything, but landed slightly diagonally on the backflip and fell again. Her score of 68.20 left her 10 points behind third place secured by France’s Laury Perez. The surprising European champion was the 17-year-old Czech Iveta Miculycova with 80 points. She outperformed the German local hero Kim Lea Müller by 1.4 points. In addition to Ducarroz, Charlotte Worthington also experienced a bitter disappointment. The British dominator and Olympic champion also fell twice and finished 8th and last in the final.
Wheel: No medal for four lanes
The Swiss track four missed a medal in the team pursuit. One year after silver at the home European Championships, the quartet has to be content with fifth place. Claudio Imhof, Simon Vitzthum, Alex Vogel and Valère Thiébaud were a good one and a half seconds faster in the main round compared to the qualifying time of the day before, but this was not enough for the selection of Swiss Cycling to still intervene in the fight for bronze. To do this, they would have had to leave the British behind and go over 1.2 seconds faster over the 4000 meters. In exactly the same line-up, the Swiss surprisingly advanced to the final at the home European Championships in Grenchen 10 months ago and only failed there at Denmark. France won gold ahead of Denmark.
The Swiss women’s team with Michelle Andres, Fabienne Buri, Léna Mettraux and Aline Seitz was able to record a small success in only their second participation in the European Championships by finishing seventh and thus leaving the Poles and the Spaniards behind. The quartet finished the qualification in 8th place. The German foursome was the favorite at home and prevailed against the Italians in the final. For her part, Seitz did well in the scratch and finished seventh, as in the team pursuit.
Athletics: Gasch misses the title fights
Next week’s European Athletics Championships, which will also be part of the European Championships, will take place without the Swiss high jumper Loïc Gasch. The Romand has decided to end the season early because of persistent ankle problems. The injury has bothered Gasch since the World Cup in Eugene (USA). There he clearly failed in qualifying with a height of 2.21 m. In March, Gasch surprisingly won the silver medal at the World Indoor Championships in Belgrade.