19.06.2017
34 men from New Zealand, Great Britain, Poland, Italy, Trinidad and Tobago, Netherlands, Denmark, India and Germany were ready for the sprint qualification on Saturday. Among them also numerous medal winners of the last
Olympic Games and World Championships. The 200m qualifier was no easy feat for anyone with the sudden drop in temperature and strong gusts of wind on the half-open concrete track. For a long time Robert held the fastest time as a starter in the last third of the classification with only 10.274 seconds.
He was then only overtaken by Max Niederlag from Chemnitz (10.161), Ethan Mitchell from New Zealand (10.170) and Joseph Truman from Great Britain. The UCI race of the highest class was held in the new World Championship mode. For Robert, this meant a “free ride” straight into the round of 16. He was then stopped in the quarterfinals by the eventual winner Kamil Kuczyncki from Poland. This left the race for places 5-8, which Robert won with aplomb. With K. Kuczyncki (1st), M. Levy (2nd) E. Mitchell (3.) and M. Niederlag (4.) Robert (5.) was in best company at his first international sprint competition after a long time.
This motivated then also for the keirin races on Sunday. Robert was able to make it to the final and also finished fifth there. Congratulations! “I continued to improve after the German championship last week. The
Legs feel good despite a prolonged illness and the short but very intensive preparation. I hope to build on the results at the German Grand Prix next weekend,” Roberts concludes.
