The now seven-time UCI World Champion Lukas Kohl (GER) is simply unbeatable; in fact, the 27-year-old is undefeated since his first UCI World Championship victory in 2016.
The German’s latest success in artistic cycling Single Men came this evening at Glasgow’s Emirates Arena, on the penultimate day of the UCI Cycling World Championships taking place in Glasgow and across Scotland.
The Spaniard Emilio Arellano (199.11 points) and the second German rider, Philipp-Thies Rapp, at his first UCI Indoor Cycling World Championships (206.85), delivered impressive scores after rather indifferent preliminary rounds. Kohl, who always rises to the challenge, knew what he had to do and that he couldn’t afford to make any mistakes.
Even though it was not his best freestyle and, with 210.50 points, he remained just below his preliminary round result, Kohl nevertheless delivered a sevenfold turning jump to enjoy a decisive victory. Despite being used to international success, he lapped up the standing ovation in the Emirates Arena in Glasgow, Scotland.
Germany dominate Pairs Open
Serafin Schefold and Max Hanselmann from Germany are once again the UCI World Champions in the Pairs Open. They hardly put a foot wrong and scored 169.3 points.. The defending UCI World Champions even collected extra points that secured their sixth triumph in a row, after their silver medal at the 2016 UCI World Championships. They are now among the most successful pairsof all time.
Their closest rivals, Lea Styber and Nico Rödiger, also from Germany, had their fans on the edge of their seats in the preliminary round. Come the final, the spectators were doubly excited. They rolled out a near flawless performance in an effort to put the defending UCI World Champions under pressure. It was a great effort, but it did not quite succeed. With 159.50 points, they secured their third silver medal in a row.
The battle for bronze was between last year's UCI World Championship fourth-place finishers, Lim Tsz Hin and Lim Tsz Leung (Hong Kong), and compatriots Hui Chun Wai and Hui Chun Yin. Despite the occasional mistake, Hin and Leungremained ahead with 118.64 points to secure bronze.
Cycle-ball: Austria looking strong going into final day
In the cycle-ball qualifications, UCI World Champions from Austria lived up to their billing as favourites. Patrick Schnetzer and Stefan Feuerstein from RV Dornbirn dominated the first four games against the Czech Republic (7-4), France (5-1), Belgium (13-0) and Switzerland (4-1).
Germany, featuring André Kopp and Raphael Kopp, also won the first four games against France (4-2), Belgium (7-1), Switzerland (5-3) and the Czech Republic (4-0).
Austria went on to beat Germany by the narrow margin of 4:3 to finish at the top of the group. These two nations are followed by France, Czech Republic and Switzerland.
Belgium remained bottom of the table and will play in the relegation play-off against the winners of the B division, which for the third time in a row, is Japan.