French cyclist Melvin Landerneau was crowned European champion in the kilometer on Monday in Munich. Clara Copponi won the silver medal in the omnium, as did Mathilde Gros in the sprint.
The French track cycling team continues its harvest of medals at the European Championships in Munich! This Monday, it was Melvin Landerneau who won the Grail, becoming European champion in the kilometer! The nearly 25-year-old Martiniquais, who had already won the silver medal in the team event, won his first individual gold medal in a major international competition, after a perfect day. He had indeed set the best qualifying time at the start of the afternoon, setting a time of 59″653, while his compatriot Quentin Lafargue (31), European champion 2016 and 2019, achieved the fifth time. in 1’00″550 and also qualified. Landerneau was therefore the last to start in this eight-man final, and he won in 59″975, managing to overtake the Italian Matteo Bianchi on the last lap after having been dominated during the first four. The German Maximilian Dörnbach won the bronze medal, while Quentin Lafargue could not do better than seventh (1’01″030).
?GOLD FOR MELVIN LANDERNEAU ?@LanderneauMel becomes European Champion in the Kilometer at #Munich2022 ! pic.twitter.com/JHE0mQeClk
— FFC (@FFCyclisme) August 15, 2022
Copponi and Gros in silver
In the evening, it was with a silver medal around her neck that Clara Copponi concluded her omnium. The 23-year-old track athlete, bronze medalist in the team pursuit, had a very good day, falling just three points behind the Italian Rachele Barbieri. In this event which combines four different disciplines, the Aixoise first finished fourth in the scratch race, before winning the tempo race and then the race by elimination. In the lead before the points race, she finally finished second behind the Italian, but ahead of the Polish Daria Pikulik. A few minutes later, it was Mathilde Gros who brought another silver medal to the French delegation. In the final of the individual speed, the 24-year-old Lensoise was opposed to the German world champion Emma Hinze, supported by a large part of the velodrome, and she lost narrowly. While Hinze had won the first round fairly easily, Gros won the second brilliantly, but in the decisive round, the world champion came to beat the French track rider on the line, by a few hundredths. This is still a good result for Gros, a few weeks from the world championships in St-Quentin-en-Yvelines and less than two years from Paris 2024… To date, track cycling has in any case brought to France 10 of its 28 medals at these European multi-sport championships.
