National sprint coach: Crashes are part of track cycling races

"That's part of the sport, especially cycling. When you go out on the track, you have to accept that you might fall," said the former sprint world champion. Of course, everyone hopes that this doesn't happen and, if it does, that it ends badly. "But unfortunately that's part of cycling. You ride close together, and if you don't ride close together, then you have less and less chance of winning," explained the 46-year-old.

Several falls

There were repeated crashes at the European Championships on the wooden oval at the Munich Exhibition Centre. On Monday, five riders collided with each other in the points race of the omnium four-event competition. While Johanna Kitti Borissza (Hungary), Emily Kay (Ireland) and Maike van der Duin (Netherlands) were able to leave the track on their own shortly afterwards, Argiro Milaki (30) from Greece and Hanna Solowej (30) from Ukraine received medical treatment behind a screen for a long time.

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Both athletes were given a drip before being carried out of the hall on stretchers and taken to hospital. According to information from her association on Tuesday, the Greek athlete suffered an injury to her shoulder blade, but no fractures. She also suffered a laceration to her eyebrow. Further examinations are to take place at home. The nature and severity of the Ukrainian's injury was initially unknown.

Paternoster suffers traumatic brain injury

On Sunday, the Italian Letizia Paternoster was involved in a mass crash in the elimination race. The 23-year-old world champion in this discipline suffered a traumatic brain injury and a triple fracture of her right collarbone, who has since undergone surgery.

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