Felix Groß (Leipzig), Theo Reinhardt (Berlin), Nils Schomber (Neuss) and Domenic Weinstein (Villingen) took 3:50.304 minutes to qualify for the 4000 metre team pursuit, beating the old record by 0.861 seconds.
This means that the German team's Olympic ticket is now out of reach. The Danish foursome even set a world record in 3:46.579 minutes. The quartet was 1.433 seconds faster than the Australian team in their world record attempt a year ago in Pruszkow.
The German team clocked the sixth-fastest time overall and may have slight hopes of making it into the medal runs in the evening. Germany has been waiting for a medal in the former showpiece discipline since 2002.
In the women's qualification, the German team only managed seventh place. Although Franziska Brauße (Öschelbronn), Lisa Brennauer (Durach), Lisa Klein (Erfurt) and Gudrun Stock (Munich) managed to progress, they will need to do better in the battle for a medal.
Emma Hinze (Cottbus) and Pauline Grabosch (Erfurt) have reached the final of the team sprint in Berlin, securing the German team's first medal. The duo clocked the fastest time of 32.265 seconds in the first round and will therefore compete for gold against Australia (32.353) in the evening. Lea Sophie Friedrich (Dassow) could also join the team for Grabosch. China (32.403) and Russia (32.415) will meet in the small final.
In the men's event, Eric Engler (Cottbus), Stefan Bötticher (Chemnitz) and Maximilian Levy (Cottbus) missed out on the finals. The trio had to settle for sixth place in 43.144 seconds, but secured their ticket for the Olympic Games in Tokyo. Germany also got rid of the world record that had stood for more than six years, after the Netherlands made it to the final against Great Britain (42.294) with a fabulous time of 41.275 seconds. France (42.730) and Australia (43.044) will face each other in the race for third place.
