EKSTRALIGA | FAB FOUR FOR LESZNO

Russian racer Emil Sayfutdinov and World Under-21 champion Jaimon Lidsey joined forces to seal an historic fourth straight PGE Ekstraliga title for Unia Leszno on Sunday.

The Bulls charged to a 59-30 win over Stal Gorzow at the Alfred Smoczyk Stadium in the play-off final decider to claim a thumping 103-76 aggregate victory and become the first side to win four on the bounce since Gorzow achieved the same feat from 1975 to 1978.

The trophy was sealed in a bizarre heat 11, which saw Gorzow’s Jack Holder crash out in the first staging of the race.

Leszno’s triumph was then all but confirmed in the re-run when world champion Bartosz Zmarzlik took Lidsey’s front wheel with an over-zealous move on bend two, which saw the Gorzow icon excluded.

With no Gorzow riders left in the heat, Lidsey got to his feet, dusted himself down and led Sayfutdinov home in the second re-run to seal the gold medals with a 5-0.

Former World Under-21 champion Bartosz Smektala starred for the Bulls on 13 paid 14, while Sayfutdinov added 11 and Lidsey scored seven paid nine.

Piotr Pawlicki picked up 11 paid 12, but his finest moment came in heat 14 when he produced a world-class piece of defensive riding to keep fast-charging SGP 2021 star Anders Thomsen in third place, allowing No.8 Kacper Pludra to bring the house down with a victory in his first and only ride of 2020.

The meeting delivered some epic action to end the PGE Ekstraliga season, with heat nine the pick of the bunch, as Sayfutdinov won a jaw-dropping battle with Holder, Janusz Kolodziej and Zmarzlik.

Junior Rafal Karczmarz topped the Gorzow score chart on eight, while Polish SON pick Szymon Wozniak scored seven paid eight. Zmarzlik ended a rare off-day with three paid four for the visitors.

Meanwhile, Wroclaw powered to the bronze medal after 2012 world champion Chris Holder scored 14 points in their 50-40 triumph over Zielona Gora at the Olympic Stadium.

Wroclaw won the third-place play-off 82-77 on aggregate with a dominant display on home shale, despite the absence of the injured Tai Woffinden.

Skipper Maciej Janowski starred on 11 paid 14, while Max Fricke racked up 10 paid 13. Great Britain star Dan Bewley led Janowski home in heat 13 to seal the maximum that guaranteed third place for the hosts. The Cumbrian impressed on his way to eight paid 10.

Slovak star Martin Vaculik signed off his season with an 18-point maximum for Zielona Gora.

For full details of the day’s results and scorers, click here: http://bit.ly/2uoK8OX.