Kristina Vogel collecting her third rainbow jersey of the championships(Image credit: AFP)
Francois Pervis (L) and Kristina Vogel pose on the podium with their medals won during at the UCI Track Cycling World Championships(Image credit: AFP)
Kristina Vogel wants to hear the crowd cheer(Image credit: AFP)
Kristina Vogel claiming gold in the final of the women's keiran(Image credit: AFP)
Kristina Vogel stamped her authority on the 2014 track World Championships in Cali, Colombia coming away with three gold medals all won in sprint events. Vogel, a part-time police officer, won the sprint and keirin world titles and teamed up with Miriam Welte to claim the team sprint title as well. In doing so, they recorded a third consecutive rainbow jersey in the event. Vogel and Welte are also the defending Olympic champions in the women's team sprint and consolidated their authority in the event with victory in Colombia.
Vogel stole the show in the women’s competition with victory in the keirin on the final night. In the final the German rider outpaced Australia’s Anna Meares who became the female rider with the most medals at World Championships with 22. Britain’s Becky James was third.
Having placed third in the keirin in 2012, Vogel became the second German to win the event after Christin Muche eight years ago.
China provided a strong challenge to Vogel claiming the world sprint title in Tianshi Zhong and Junhong Lin but both had to settle for the lower steps of the podium. Germany had been waiting for a world gold in the discipline since 1986, when East-German Christa Rothenburger was the fastest woman on the planet.
Runner-up last year in Minsk, Vogel has made it at last: “I had been waiting for this for so long. My dream comes true at last. I’m so happy but I will have to wait to celebrate since I still have the keirin,” she said.
Vogel became the third woman behind Anna Meares and Victoria Pendleton to win three gold medals at a World Championships which also matched the efforts of Francois Pervis who became the first man to clinch three titles at a single event.
Germany ended the championships with eight medals, four gold and four silver. Stefan Bötticher was second in the men's sprint while Joachim Eilers also claimed silver in the men's 1km time trial to record the only male medals. Stephanie Pohl added another silver to the German tally behind Australia's Amy Cure in the women's points race but it were Vogel and Welte who claimed all the accolades.
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