EKSTRALIGA: Gorzow remain unbeaten and Wroclaw win away

#CZEWRO

Częstochowa suffered a humiliating defeat at home to Wroclaw, who travelled without the injured Tai Woffinden to the match on Sunday afternoon.

The visitors seemed first to the best lines on every heat with SGP riders Artem Laguta (17) and Maciej Janowski (15+2) looking practically unbeatable. The Russian, for example, only gave up one point and that was in the final heat with the match already won. Meanwhile the Polish rider gained the majority of his points by coming from behind passing opponents on the inside and outside at will.

Meanwhile, Częstochowa’s Scandinavian SGP duo struggled, with Fredrik Lindgren’s bike cutting out on Heat 11 when he was supposed to dominate the bout alongside Leon Madsen. The Dane had come in as tactical reserve to get the team back in the match. The Swede at least finished with 9 points after a conciliation win in the final heat.

Madsen on the other hand had his worse score of the season with an unbelievably low 7 from 6 heats. Thankfully, junior Jakub Miskowiak had not forgotten his way around their home track and lead the team, scoring 11.

The good news for British fans was that Wroclaw’s Dan Bewley (8+1) also had an excellent meet as the visitors won comfortably 38:52. Częstochowa’s other Danish rider, Jonas Jeppesen scored 2+2.

#ZIEGOR

The home team, Falubaz, set off at a ferocious pace as they sought to see off the undefeated league leaders in Sunday evening’s match.

Patryk Dudek, in particular, was in no mood for charity, becoming one of the few riders this year who has beaten, Bartosz Zmarzlik (17) in a heat. The double world champion was brought in as tactical replacement as early as Heat 5 to keep Gorzow in the tie. But the plan backfired as Dudek muscled his way passed his compatriot and Gorzow’s Martin Vaculik (7+3) surprised everyone by coming in last. That would be the only point dropped by Zmarzlik in the match.

By Heat 7, even with another Heat win from Zmarzlik, Zielona Góra were ahead 24:18 and looked like the team in control.

The problem for the home team was that only Dudek seemed to be reading from that script. He dominating every heat, only to be denied a maximum by wins in Heat 10 and 15 by the reigning world champion.
But after the second track grading the visitors found their groove with three 1:5s and a 2:4 before the nomination heats were announced to set up a comfortable 40:50 victory.

Apart from Zmarzlik, it was Anders Thomsen (12) and Szymon Wozniak (9+2) who made sure it was business as usual for the league leaders, with Australian, Max Fricke (7) putting in the numbers for defeated, Zielona Góra.