EUROPEAN PREVIEW

Image courtesy of Steve Hone Photography

The match carries plenty of historical significance as it is now six years since a Torun victory in the fixture, and the club will still have painful memories of last season’s play-off semi-final.

Back then, the sides drew 45-45 at the Motoarena and an injury crisis for Wroclaw before the second leg a fortnight later actually made the visitors favourites to progress.

But Dan Bewley inspired a 51-39 Wroclaw victory as they advanced to the Grand Final, whilst Torun had to be content with a third-place play-off win over Czestochowa.

This season Torun sit sixth in the table with one win from three matches, with Robert Lambert and Emil Sayfutdinov very much leading their scoring.
Wroclaw have five points on the board, including one from Tuesday’s dramatic draw at Czestochowa, and will look to Tai Woffinden to recapture top form in Poland in support of Bewley and Artem Laguta.

Elsewhere on Friday there’s a big meeting for Grudziadz who are scoreless so far and face Leszno at home, and a close contest is expected between two sides expected to be evenly matched.

Much could rest for the home side on the form of Jason Doyle, whilst Leszno have three points so far but are heading into their toughest run of fixtures this season, so will be keen to put further distance between themselves and the bottom.

On Sunday all eyes will be on one of the biggest derbies in Poland which is back on the calendar in 2024, as Zielona Gora host Gorzow.

With a win at home to Grudziadz and a draw at Leszno, it’s been an encouraging return to the top-flight for ZG, who sit comfortably in fourth place with Gorzow one place and one point ahead of them.

Elsewhere the pressure is on Czestochowa after a below par start to the season which has seen them only score one point, and things are unlikely to get any easier as they host unbeaten leaders Lublin.

In Metalkas 2. Ekstraliga, two midweek matches completed the Round 2 schedule with Rybnik 49-40 winners over Rzezow to maintain their strong start to the season.
Brady Kurtz was in top form again with 14 points, missing out only to Nicki Pedersen in Heat 15 as the Dane scored 12+1.

Poznan, meanwhile, won 48-41 at Lodz with Ryan Douglas (11+2) and Aleksandr Loktaev (11) leading the way in an unusual meeting as the home side recovered from a shocking start in which they conceded a 0-5 and a 1-5 in Heats 2 and 3 to take the lead in Heat 10.
They were 37-34 up with three races remaining but Poznan finished off with two 5-1s and a 4-2 to complete their away victory.

It means Rybnik join Krosno at the top with a maximum six points out of six, whilst Lodz are left at the bottom and without a point from their opening three fixtures.

The Round 4 schedule is split over the next two weekends and it’s bottom against top this Sunday as Lodz host Rybnik, whilst on the same day Tom Brennan will be in action for Gdansk as they take on Bydgoszcz.

Round 4 of the National Speedway League does not take place until mid-May, although there is a rearranged Round 2 match on May 11 when Tarnow take on Pila.