Status: 08/13/2022 7:23 p.m
German track cyclists are slowly but surely becoming the stars of the European Championships. Four medals were won on the third day of competition. In the women’s single pursuit, Mieke Kröger surprisingly beat favorite Lisa Brennauer in a German final. Emma Hinze was unbeatable in the time trial. And in the men’s individual pursuit, Nicolas Heinrich won after a strong performance.
The young Saxon Nicolas Heinrich (20) defeated the Italian Davide Plebani in the final of the single pursuit. The Zwickau led from the start. Plebani caught up briefly, but then Heinrich pulled away and had a whopping lead of 3.6 seconds at the end of the four kilometers. With that, the third German gold medal of the day in the track oval at the Munich Exhibition Center was perfect.
Nicolas Heinrich
Image: ap/golovkin
In the women’s pursuit, Brennauer was initially ahead before she was unable to cope with the final sprint of Kröger from Bielefeld. In the end, she was more than a second behind Kröger (3:22.469) with a time of 3:23.566 minutes. It is the first international individual medal for the 29-year-old.
Bronze went to Italy’s Vittoria Guazzini. Kröger and Brennauer from Kempten had already won gold in the team pursuit the day before together with Lisa Klein and Franziska Brauße. For Bavarian Brennauer it was her last race on the track.
Mieke Kröger (left) and Lisa Brennauer after the German final
Image: dpa/warmuth
“I’ve proved to myself that I can trust my abilities,” said Kröger on ZDF. The fact that she shone especially at the end of the race is her strength: “I can stay relaxed for the first kilometer.” Emotionally, Brennauer felt “a great deal of chaos. Of course I would have liked to win. My legs didn’t give up anymore.” She “already noticed that the tension before the last race was great”.
Second gold for Hinze too
Emma Hinze had also snagged her second gold medal shortly before. The woman from Cottbus lived up to her role as the top favorite in the 500-meter time trial and won with a time of 32.668 seconds.
Silver went to the Ukrainian Olena Starikova ahead of Miriam Vece (Italy). Starikova was 0.735 seconds behind by a large margin. Pauline Sophie Grabosch from Magdeburg came fifth with a time of 33.684 seconds.
Emma Hinze had already set the bar high in qualifying when she beat the competition by 0.765 seconds with a time of 32.732 seconds.
Grabosch and Hinze, who was born in Hildesheim, already had reason to celebrate yesterday: In the team sprint they won gold together with Lea Sophie Friedrich. She is also at the start in the keirin. At the 2020 World Cup in Berlin, she won gold three times. No wonder she said in an interview: “It reminds me of Berlin 2020.”
Sprint: Dörnbach-Aus in the quarterfinals
In the men’s sprint, Maximilian Dörnbach reached the quarterfinals, which will be held on Saturday evening. The Cottbus native defeated the Czech Martin Cechman. Erfurt’s Marc Jurczyk had no chance against Hamish Turnbull from Britain. In the quarter-finals it is 1-1 after two runs against Frenchman Sebastien Vigier. The 3rd run decides on progress.
Source: sportschau.de