At the European Track Cycling Championships in Munich, a serious mass crash occurred in the women's elimination round.

In the steep bend after the home straight, several drivers collided and fell on Saturday.

While most athletes were able to get up after a short treatment, world champion Letizia Paternoster from Italy had to be treated for a long time.

The 23-year-old was then taken out of the hall on a stretcher.

There was initially no information about her state of health.

The race was interrupted for first aid and track repairs.

Previously, there had already been a fall involving several people.

However, this went smoothly.

All drivers were able to leave the wooden oval independently.

Ireland's Alice Sharpe was involved in both crashes but restarted on both restarts.

In elimination driving, the last person in the field has to leave the race every two laps.

German medals at EM

Meanwhile, the German track cycling aces are doing well at the home European Championships in Munich.

The athletes of the Federation of German Cyclists (BDR) won gold in both races in the individual pursuit and in the 500-meter time trial on Saturday.

After two days of competition, the association already has five gold medals under its belt.

At the start on Friday, the team sprinters and the women's four were successful.

The strong result on Saturday was rounded off by silver from Olympic champion Brennauer (single pursuit).

Pauline Grabosch was fifth in the 500 meter time trial.

Brennauer, the surprise European champion Kröger stole the show a little when she left, was particularly in focus.

The 34-year-old from Brennauer ends her career in Munich, she started in the one-man pursuit for the last time on the track - and made for an emotional conclusion.

"A big mess is going on in my head," she said afterwards on ZDF: "I'm happy about a great competition, of course, I would have liked to win."

Because there was no last title: The world champion had to admit defeat in the German final.

In the end, Brennauer (3:23.566 minutes) was more than a second behind Kröger, the driver of the foursome (3:22.469).

There was no frustration about the missed title.

The long-time companions hugged each other after the race, Brennauer fought back tears of farewell.

"It was so nice to just hug her," said Kröger: "You don't have to have a bad conscience with Lisa.

She just enjoyed it.”

Sprint star Hinze was surprised by her dominance over the short distance.

"I actually started more for fun, otherwise I wouldn't do this discipline," said the 24-year-old from Cottbus after winning the 500-meter time trial.

Her team sprint colleague and the international competition had no chance against Hinze.

In a German record of 32.668 seconds, she won by more than seven tenths of a second over the Ukrainian Olena Starikova.

"I never would have thought that this morning," said Hinze.

It shouldn't have been her last appearance on the podium: In the sprint and keirin, Hinze is one of the favorites.

Nicolas Heinrich became the favorite at the latest with his qualifying best time in the individual pursuit.

In the final for gold, the 20-year-old from Zwickau repeated his strong performance: in 4:09.320 minutes Heinrich relegated the Italian Davide Plebani (+3.604) to second place.

"It's indescribable.

It was a perfect day for me, I can't put it any other way," said Heinrich.