Alex Vogel (right) and his Swiss teammates surprisingly beat Great Britain
Keystone
At the European Track Cycling Championships in Konya, Turkey, the Swiss national team qualifies for the final in the team pursuit.
Noah Bögli, Mats Poot, Pascal Tappeiner and Alex Vogel beat the higher-ranked British team in the main round. The quartet covered the 4000 meters in 3:44.754 minutes, improving the national record set the day before in qualifying by around 1.9 seconds.
In the final this evening at 19:13 Swiss time, they will face the favored Danes, who set a new world record time of 3:39.977 minutes in the main round.
The Swiss women also put in an outstanding performance, beating Belgium in the main round. Michelle Andres, Lorena Leu, Jasmin Liechti and Aline Seitz needed 4:12.094 minutes for the 16 laps. They improved on the Swiss record set the day before in qualifying by 2.9 seconds and finished in 5th place. Around 2.5 seconds separated the quartet from participation in the small final.