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Brokeback cyclist takes Olympic gold

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Brokeback cyclist takes Olympic gold
Photo: DPA

German cyclist Kristina Vogel won Olympic gold on Friday three years after surviving a horrific crash which broke her back.

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The grins on Vogel's and teammate Miriam Welte’s faces were no less broad for the fact that they only reached the final thanks to the disqualification of the British team – and then saw their silver turn to gold after their Chinese opponents were also penalised.

“We would have liked to have won differently,” admitted Welte, Die Welt reported on Friday. Vogel has spent years recovering from a horrific collision with a minivan in 2009 which left her with a broken vertebra.

Their gold was added to by the men’s quadruple sculls team after Karl Schulze, Tim Grohmann, Philipp Wende and Lauritz Schoof led from the start, crossing the line ahead of Croatia and Australia.

“That was very impressive. I had not reckoned on such a lead. The Croats never had the feeling they could overtake,” said German trainer Hartmut Buschbacher. “We knew that today was going to be our day.”

It was the third rowing medal for Germany, following the gold for the eight-man team and the silver won by the women’s four team.

The Local/hc

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