Cycling: Bird sprints to gold without defeat

Olympic champion Kristina Vogel has dominated the short-duration competitions at the European track cycling championships in Berlin and has chosen herself as the most successful German athlete with three medals. The 26-year-old won gold in the sprint on Sunday afternoon, after having already triumphed in the Keirin on Saturday. On Thursday, Vogel had finished second in the team sprint alongside Pauline Grabosch and Miriam Welte.

Maximilian Levy also contributed to the golden finale for the Bund Deutscher Radfahrer. The local hero won in Keirin ahead of Shane Perkins and Andrij Winokurow from the Ukraine, who was born in Australia and started for Russia. For Levy, already decorated with silver in the team sprint, it was the second European Championship title in Keirin after 2013. The second German starter Joachim Eilers finished eighth.

In the sprint final, Vogel won against French Mathilde Gros in two rounds. The world champion had entered the final for gold without defeat and played off her experience against the eight years younger rival – her victories were achieved by Vogel with a large margin.

Gros had eliminated Grabosch in the semi-final, who has to pay tribute to the wear and tear of the forces at the end of a strong European Championship. Grabosch also lost the race for bronze against the Russian top sprinter Daria Schmelewa.

BDR came to a positive conclusion. The association won a total of twelve medals, five of them in the Olympic disciplines “We wanted to know where we stand. This assessment of the situation turned out to be better than we had expected. In the Olympic disciplines, we are in exactly the same corridor as we agreed,”said Sport Director Patrick Moster.

The sprinters in particular deserve special praise. Vogel is “our best man”, also the 19-year-old Grabosch ennobled Moster:”What she has delivered here is sensational”.

Prior to the event, Moster had announced four to seven medals as the goal. The organizer was satisfied with 9100 tickets sold during the four days of the competition.