Track World Championships 2018: After the Kristina Vogel Festival in the past few days, the BDR was again able to celebrate a gold medal today: Miriam Welte triumphed in the 500m time trial. In the other decisions of the day, the German drivers just missed out on the medal ranks. Maximilian Levy finished fourth in the men's sprint – just like Lisa Brennauer in the individual pursuit.
The BDR had reason to celebrate as early as the first decision on the fourth day of the 2018 Track World Championships in Apeldoorn. Miriam Welte was able to assert herself against the competition in the 500m time trial with a strong and extremely confident performance. Four years after her last individual medal and after second place last year, the 31-year-old from the Palatinate relegated her toughest competitor, Daria Shmeleva from Russia, to second place today. Pauline Grabosch lost the fight for the last place on the podium by only three thousandths of a second and was beaten by Elis Ligtlee from the Netherlands.
Lisa Brennauer, who was very happy with her performance, just missed out on the medal ranks. “If someone had told me this morning that I was going to the final, I wouldn't have believed it. It was a dream to be able to do that and with a bit more preparation I could have gone a second or two faster." she said after losing the small final in the one-man pursuit against the American Kelly Catlin. In the afternoon qualification, Welte set a new German record of 3:32,485. Gold went to Chloe Dygert from the USA, who won the final against Annemiek van Vleuten.
Maximilian Levy also just missed out on a medal today. In the individual sprint, he surprisingly made it to the semi-finals after having already won bronze in the keirin the day before yesterday. Looking ahead to today's competition, he had previously said: "That (Keirin, editor's note) was my competition, anchored in my head [...] Everything else is an encore." Freed, the 30-year-old showed a strong performance and, for the first time since the 2008 Olympics, made it back into the group of the last four in the sprint. Although it was over there against the eventual silver medalist Jack Carlin from Great Britain and in the small final Levy also clearly lost out against Sebastien Vigier – the 2009 keirin world champion should nevertheless be satisfied with his performance today. By the way, Matthew Glaetzer from Australia won gold.
