Lea Sophie Friedrich won the gold medal in the keirin sprint at the Track Cycling World Championships in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines. Roger Kluge and Theo Reinhardt got nothing in the two-man team drive.
Friedrich cheered, she drummed on her handlebars, and tears flowed. Of course they were tears of joy. At the end of the Track Cycling World Championships on the Olympic track in Paris, she was again crowned Keirin World Champion. With two gold medals and one silver medal, the only 22-year-old exceptional athlete has become a star in the German team and has already claimed her seventh world championship title.
“I’ve never cried like that, I don’t even know what to say? Defending the title is just so nice. I knew if I died the last lap that it could be enough. I didn’t feel like waiting and then to lose. It’s very, very nice to have another gold medal.”said Friedrich after winning the final on Sunday (October 16, 2022) ahead of Mina Sato from Japan and Steffie van der Peet from the Netherlands.
Lea Sophie Friedrich celebrates her victory at the Track Cycling World Championships in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines.
Hinze left early
Friedrich, who had driven a brilliant sprint over two laps from the front on the wooden oval in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, also surpassed her teammate Emma Hinze. The 25-year-old had already packed her things on Saturday and prematurely ended her World Cup appearance.
In any case, 659 days before the Olympic track cycling competitions, Friedrich is prepared, although the German sprint stars were no longer as dominant as in the past two years. So “Allez les Bleus” could be heard again and again, but in the end Friedrich cheered again.
Kluge and Reinhardt get nothing
The two European champions Roger Kluge and Theo Reinhardt clearly missed out on a medal in the two-man team at the track cycling world championships. The successful duo had to settle for eighth place after 50 kilometers on the 2024 Olympic track. “It was a world-class field. It was fun, but in the end there were no nuances”said Kluge.
Instead, the two Frenchmen Donavan Grondin and Benjamin Thomas took the title ahead of the Britons Ethan Hayter and Oliver Wood and the Belgians Fabio van den Bossche and Lindsay de Vylder.
Kluge and Reinhardt have been among the specialists in the so-called Madison for years. The duo won the world title in 2018 and 2019, followed by bronze in 2020. The two had also won the title at the European Championships in Munich.