Two gold medals: European Championship titles for foursome and sprint trio

First the women's quadruple gold medallists continued their winning streak, then the sprinters also raced to the title: the German track cycling athletes celebrated a brilliant start at the European Championships in Munich.

German women defend title at European Championships

To bid farewell to Lisa Brennauer, the Olympic and world champion quartet of Franziska Brauße (Öschelbronn), Lisa Klein (Erfurt) and Mieke Kröger (Bielefeld) defended their 4000 metre title. Afterwards, sprinters Emma Hinze (Cottbus), Pauline Grabosch (Chemnitz) and Lea Sophie Friedrich (Cottbus) also chased the title. to gold on the 200 metre track as a team.

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In a thrilling final race, the successful German foursome won against Italy in 4:10.872 minutes with a lead of 0.699 seconds after trailing by more than a second at one point. "Our national coach was getting louder and louder, no longer calling out the lap times as we are used to, but just shouting, so we knew we were behind and had to step it up a gear to win this thing," reported Brauße.

Major victory at the European Championships

Driven by the enthusiastic crowd in the packed stands, the Olympic champions rode an irresistible final kilometre to continue their winning streak. "It's just fun to win. You enjoy the victory and it was hard-fought on a super-difficult track. It's always very special in front of a home crowd," said Klein.

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For Lisa Brennauer, who ended her career after the European Championshipsthe title was particularly important to him. "It's the last competition for me in this constellation. I'm smiling and crying that we were able to pull it off again today as a team. It was a very special final for me," said the 34-year-old.

Victory against Great Britain

The world champions and world record holders had beaten Great Britain in the semi-finals. The British lost the small final against France.

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Only around 45 minutes later, the sprinters from the German Cycling Federation (BDR) were also unbeatable. The Olympic silver medallists from Tokyo and world champions defeated the trio from the Netherlands in 38.061 seconds. The Polish women secured third place by beating France in the small final. "It was full throttle three times," said Emma Hinze about the tactics in the final and the preliminary rounds. "We made the most of our abilities. Now we not only have the rainbow stripes, but also the stars on our chest and I think we can be very proud of that," said Pauline Grabosch.

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