Handbiker Annika Zeyen won the fourth German gold medal at the Paralympic Games in Tokyo.

The world champion from Bonn won the individual time trial over 16 kilometers on the Fuji International Speedway after a strong second half of the race in 32: 46.97 minutes and won her fourth precious metal at the Paralympics with a 43-second lead.

She collected all previous medals as a wheelchair basketball player, in 2012 in London she won gold with the German team.

As expected, the cyclists pretty up the German balance sheet in Japan on time trial day enormously.

Rio champion Vico Merklein won silver, flag bearer Michael Teuber and Kerstin Brachtendorf each took bronze.

Denise Schindler and Andrea Eskau, on the other hand, experienced bitter disappointments.

“More was not possible.

I'm very happy"

Merklein only missed his second gold at the Paralympics by two seconds with the handbike, but was second to take his fourth precious metal.

“More was not possible.

I am totally happy that it is what it is.

Of course you can drive one better, but we'll do that in three years, ”said the 44-year-old.

Teuber missed his historic fifth gold in succession in the time trial by just five seconds, and won bronze for the first time in his sixth games.

“I am proud that I drove so well.

When I look at my performance data, I think that it was the best race of my life, "said the man from Munich:" More was simply not possible, that's why I am happy to take bronze home with me. "

Brachtendorf won a surprise medal in the starting class C5.

The 49-year-old won her first precious metal at the Paralympics as third.

Only three weeks before the games, the Cottbus woman had to undergo an operation because of an occlusion of the internal pelvic artery.

"Everything was already canceled in my head," said Brachtendorf: "Now I am standing here and have a medal, unbelievable."

Denise Schindler disappointed after finishing third in the track pursuit in the time trial of classes C1 to C3 in ninth place.

"It was bad.

I had a black day right from the start, ”said the 35-year-old.

Long-running favorite Andrea Eskau also missed the podium with her handbike after a break-in.

After the best time in the interim, the 15-time medalist was fifth, 4:30 minutes behind.

Pierre Senska narrowly missed a medal as fourth in the Teuber starting class, while Bernd Jeffre, on the other hand, was eighth on his handbike.