For a country that had dominated the World Championships in Paris this past spring, the first sprint race for this European Championships has ended in disappointment. The French World Champion in the Team Sprint, where Quentin Lafargue replaced sprint World Champion Gregory Bauge, had to settle for fourth place. In the battle for bronze, Germany distanced them by more than half a second. The team with the impressively buff Robert Förstemann as lead out scored 43.210, which was the best time of the day.

The battle for gold was tight. The Dutch team of Nils Van T’Hoenderdal, Jeffrey Hoofland and Hugo Haak were only 126 thousandths of a second faster than the surprisingly nippy Poles.

The women’s race seemed almost to be a foregone conclusion. The German Olympic champions Miriam Welte and Kristina Vogel had no chance against the Russians Daria Schmelewa and Anstassia Winowa, who won silver at the World Championships in Paris. With a time of 32.443, the Russians were 47 hundredths of a second faster. For Miriam Welte this can be considered a real success since she had just a week ago suffered second degree burns to her legs after having accidentally poured boiling water on herself while making tea.