Missed the next title, but won three medals: With silver for Lea Friedrich and Roger Kluge and bronze for Emma Hinze, the German team experienced a strong evening at the track cycling world championships.
Lea Friedrich fought with the last of her strength, the dethroned Emma Hinze cheered on at the top of her lungs – but the fantastic winning streak of the fast German women came to an end at the track cycling world championships just outside Paris. The two top sprinters won silver and bronze in the queen’s discipline, but were unable to prevent the sprint success of the enthusiastically celebrated Frenchwoman Mathilde Gros. There was also silver in the men’s points race for veteran Roger Kluge.
Two days after winning the team sprint, 22-year-old Friedrich from Dassow lost two runs in the final against Gros, who succeeded Emma Hinze. The defending champion was defeated by Gros in the semifinals, but secured bronze in the small final.
Friedrich “in hindsight proud of silver”
“Of course I would have liked to have had the rainbow jersey, no question. I still missed this title, my legs are really good. But in retrospect I’m proud of silver,” said Friedrich. Hinze said: “I did well here for me, although it didn’t start perfectly. I’ve already noticed that I’m very broken, my legs hurt a lot – but that’s sport.”
Hinze (25), who won gold in 2021 before Friedrich and was the first German to become sprint world champion for the third time in a row, defeated Laurine van Riessen from the Netherlands 2-0 in a duel for third place. In the semi-finals she had lost in three runs to Gros, who was driving like unleashed.
The German team missed the second gold on the track of the 2024 Summer Games after the team sprint success by Friedrich, Hinze and Pauline Grabosch. For the German “short-term” specialists, this ended their impressive winning streak. Since 2019 they have been undefeated in the four fast disciplines (sprint, team sprint, keirin, 500 m) at world championships. Friedrich and Hinze have two more gold chances just outside Paris on Saturday in the 500m time trial and on Sunday in the keirin.
Silver for Kluge a real coup
Veteran Roger Kluge caused a coup from a German point of view. The 36-year-old was surprisingly second in the points race – like 14 years ago at the Olympics in Beijing. Nevertheless, Kluge was not entirely satisfied.
“It’s a World Cup medal, that’s definitely a success too, but it’s not the dream I had,” said Kluge, who stormed onto the podium with a strong race to catch up and was only beaten by Dutchman Yoeri Havik: ” I might have been able to get one more classification in the first half, but other than that I don’t have to blame myself much tactically. I knew I was always in a strong final, and I showed that again.”
For Kluge it was the fifth medal at the track world championships. In 2018 and 2019 he won together with Theo Reinhardt in a two-man team drive.