- The train-bike ace Hinze is in bad luck: no medal in the keirin
Emma Hinze pushed herself to the limit at 67 km/h, but the path to a medal was too far. The dream of winning a medal in individual events remains unfulfilled for the eight-time world champion in Olympic track cycling events. Hinze had to settle for fifth place in the Keirin final at the Velodrome in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, while her teammate Lea Sophie Friedrich was eliminated in the semi-finals.
"We had two riders, Lea and Emma, who could have competed for medals. Both were not consistent enough in the crucial races. That cost Lea a place in the final and Emma a medal because they were never really in the race," said national coach Jan van Eijden.
Instead, the gold medal went to New Zealand's Ellesse Andrews, ahead of the Netherlands' Hetty van de Wouw and Britain's Emma Finucane. Hinze and Friedrich, who won bronze in the team sprint at the beginning of the competition, still have the individual sprint on Sunday to aim for a medal. In Tokyo, they also failed to win a medal in the Keirin and individual sprint.
"Both are in good shape. They have the potential to be at the front. A medal is the goal," van Eijden had said before the crucial races. However, things didn't go as planned. Hinze was outclassed in the final, while Friedrich had let her chances slip away in the semi-finals by getting boxed in.
Kristina Vogel was the last German to win an individual medal in track cycling, taking gold in the sprint in Rio de Janeiro eight years ago. Since then, Hinze and Friedrich have dominated the competition at the World Championships, especially in the Keirin. However, they have not been able to replicate their success at the Olympics.
The German men's sprinters are also a cause for concern. None of them made it to the top 16, with 20-year-old Luca Spiegel and Maximilian Dörnbach both crashing out in the first round despite setting a new German record.
Van Eijden is worried about the men's sprint team and is calling for a post-Olympic meeting with coaches and scientists to develop a new concept. "We have a lot of work to do with the men. We need to sit down after the Olympics with coaches and scientists and come up with a concept," said van Eijden, who was once a sprint world champion himself.
Despite Hinze's impressive speed of 67 km/h, she couldn't overtake the competition in the Keirin final, settling for a fifth-place finish. In the same event at the previous Olympics in Tokyo, Hinze also failed to secure a medal.
