Latest Polish speedway update from MSJ - Junior Extraliga starts, Gniezno go up in smoke!

Junior Extraliga kicks off

A new idea by the speedway bosses in Poland - junior Extraliga. Additional meetings for the U21s are supposed to make a difference to their development.

The idea is to run meetings featuring  four teams of e-liga U21s. It all begins in Tarnow to be followed by a meeting in Rzeszow the day after.

Gniezno tragedy

Gniezno is a division two team that has ambitions to return to Liga 1 after relegation last season. The team were to face one of three foreign teams in Polish speedway - namely Ukrainian Rovne.

The club decided to make the travel to Rovne nearly two days before the meeting expecting problems at the Ukrainian border. They were far from wrong! Crossing the border with bikes and race gear was next to impossible with Ukrainian border guards even asking for registration plates on bikes! None exist of course.

After a couple of hours and a high phone bill the team managed to cross the border, unfortunately it was not the end of theis misery - in fact the real tragedy only to begin. After the lengthy and tiring border experience the team decided to rest at one of car parks. The temperature was nearly 30C when one of drivers smelled smoke - everyone had less then 30 sec to escape the van which caught fire.
11 bikes in addition to race gear, kevlars, tool boxes were travelling by the van - all burnt down completely. The team rep said they had lost around 150 000 GBP worth of stuff. Luckily the team were travelling in another van and nobody got hurt!

Source: Przeglad Zuzlowy, MSJ Speedway, (translation)