Cycling World Cup: Friedrich narrowly missed gold – Kluge missed bronze

Rad-WM Friedrich just missed gold – Kluge missed bronze

Emma Finucane (l) prevailed wafer-thin against Lea Sophie Friedrich. photo

© Tim Goode/PA Wire/dpa

Lea Sophie Friedrich wins her fourth medal on the track at the Cycling World Championships in Glasgow. Only centimeters are missing for the title in the sprint. Emma Hinze has to be content with fourth place.

Lea Sophie Friedrich pulled the handlebars forward at Tempo 65, then lowered her head in disappointment. In a rousing finale, only centimeters were missing from a great triumph.

The eight-time track cycling world champion missed her first title in the supreme discipline sprint by a hair’s breadth at the World Championships in Glasgow. The 23-year-old Friedrich lost both runs in the final against local hero Emma Finucane and had to settle for silver. Team colleague Emma Hinze even went away empty-handed after the defeat in the small final.

Friedrich “really flat”

“It was a tough tournament, a tough world championship. I’m really flat, from the head and the legs. I’m very happy about the silver medal, even if it didn’t look like it at the beginning. I gave everything, I can’t blame myself.” , said Friedrich and added: “I come out of the competition stronger.”

Even if it wasn’t enough for a golden finish, the German sprinters were among the big stars in the Chris Hoy Velodrome. Friedrich even collected a total of four medals. “I can be proud of that,” said Friedrich, who had already won gold in the team sprint with Hinze and Pauline Grabosch and two bronze medals in the 500-meter time trial and Keirin the day before. Hinze also won the world title in the 500-meter time trial.

German men can only dream of such successes. On the last day of competition on the wooden oval, the last hopes for a medal were dashed. Despite a strong performance, veteran Roger Kluge had to settle for fourth place in the points race. The day before, Kluge, in a duet with Theo Reinhardt in the Madison, was not able to win the medal he had hoped for when the two-time world champions finished seventh. Maximilian Dörnbach, like Marc Jurczyk, was eliminated in the Keirin quarterfinals and has to wait for his first World Championship podium.

Olympic hopes on women

With a view to the Olympic Games in Paris, German hopes rest solely on the German sprinters. “But your big challenge will be to win the Olympics. After Berlin, everyone thought that they would also strike in Tokyo,” said former British superstar Chris Hoy, who finds the German aces “impressive”. National coach Jan van Eijden can only agree: “We’ve won three medals in the three Olympic disciplines. But you have to say: The top is getting narrower. It’s the same as with the men.”

Especially Friedrich knew how to convince in Glasgow in the Olympic disciplines. In the keirin she “only” got bronze because she made a tactical mistake. Otherwise, she had won all the races with ease. And she also sprinted through the tournament. It was only in the final that she had to admit defeat to Finucane by a very narrow margin. Perhaps the home advantage made the crucial difference.

For Hinze, on the other hand, there was no further medal after her double success. Both in the small final against the New Zealand keirin world champion Ellesse Andrews and before that against Finucane, she had no chance in all runs.

dpa

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