Kim Nilsson (kask żółty) i Kai Huckenbeck. Fot. Jarosław Pabijan
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The Swedish second division, Allsvenskan, did not race at all in 2020, but everything looks set for six teams to compete this year with the first match scheduled for 5th May.

In 2019 Nyköping Griparna won the league and they were one of the few teams that had more than 500 spectators at one of their matches. It remains to be seen if the league will be able to go ahead without fans at the ground, which at the moment seems the most likely outcome even with COVID-19 vaccine coming to Sweden. It also seems hard to imagine that anyone will pick up the TV rights for the league, which has few followers.

The league is, of course, dominated by Swedish riders, many of whom chose to continue racing for their home club in this league even if they have bigger contracts with other clubs in Sweden and Poland.

  • Kim Nilsson, for example, will continue at the champions Griparna as well as Tarnow (eWinner 1) and moving to Rospiggarna in Elitserien.

Norrköping Vargarna will have the services of Linus Sundström (Västervik), Hagfors Valsarna have signed Tomas H Jonasson (Piratarna/ Daugavpils) and Team Rapid, the name of the Allsvenskan team from Eskilstuna, will be led by Linus Eklöf
(Lejonen).

One of the biggest surprises of the pre-season signings is the return of veteran, Tony Gulbrand. At the age of 56 yrs he will be representing a new team Smålanningarna – a co-operation between Gislaved Lejonen and Målilla Dackarna which lie 160 km from each other in the same region of southern Sweden.

Guldbrand’s return to the sport partly reflects the shortage of Swedish riders – even more the case in the top tiers of the sport following the retirement of Andreas Jonsson in 2019 and Antonio Lindbäck last year.

It means that even in Sweden’s second division a number of foreign riders will be taking up places.

One rider of note is Britian’s Leon Flint, who will be just 19 yrs next month, who will be joining Eklöf at Team Rapid as well as racing with ROW Rybnik in eWinner 1.

Kumla team Indianerna B have signed none less than Nobert Kwakowiak, who finished as the third highest scoring Junior in Ekstraliga in 2020 racing for Zielona Gora. Kumla intend to use the Pole in both Elitserien and Allsvenskan, and he has signed a two-year contract with the club after scoring 1.566 average in Poland’s top league. That was better than SGP riders Max Fricke, Antonio Lindbäck and SEC riders of the calibre of Michael Jepsen Jensen.