World Cycling Championships 2023: Track cycling trio Hinze, Friedrich and Grabosch win gold with world record
The great Sir Chris Hoy was mightily impressed and was one of the first well-wishers at the velodrome in Glasgow. With a world record show in the team sprint, Emma Hinze and Co. provided the first highlight of the Super Cycling World Championships on Thursday. With fabulous times in the style of Hoy, who is one of the most successful British athletes ever with six Olympic victories on the track. The Olympics are also the final destination for the German team sprinters, as this one success is still missing from their otherwise perfect collection of titles.
The time has come for Hinze, Lea Sophie Friedrich and Pauline Grabosch in Paris 2024. It would be the crowning glory after four World Championship titles in a row. "Only a few have managed that," said Grabosch proudly: "Riding as a team is a huge pressure. We gave each other strength." Hinze had a similar view: "It's more difficult to repeat this every time than to win it for the first time. I think it's great that we manage to do it again and again."
World Cycling Championships 2023: Heart-stopping final against the British
In a heart-stopping final, the German trio raced to victory in 45.848 seconds, improving their own world record from October by more than a tenth of a second. But the British were close, only 75 hundredths of a second behind. "Nobody can understand what it means to race against a team with a home advantage," said Grabosch.
Hinze and Friedrich took silver in Tokyo 2021 - when the team sprint was still held with two riders - and were not really able to celebrate. The bar is now set high for Paris. It helps if you can show nerves of steel. After all, the 2024 Olympics will not only be against strong French women, especially in the individual disciplines, but also against a euphoric home crowd.
More medals beckon
The team sprint gold in Glasgow is just the beginning, however, with further (gold) medals in the 500 metres, sprint and keirin. Friedrich, who is just 23 years old, already has eight World Championship titles to her name, while Hinze, who is two years older, has seven. The World Championship record of Kristina Vogel, who has been paralysed since her training accident in 2018, with a total of eleven titles is beginning to falter.
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