Sweden hosted this qualification round for the 2022 FIM Ice Speedway World Championship and a successful meeting confirmed the riders who will participate in the shortened Final series.
Predictably the two MFR entries were in command with the young prospect Nikita Bogdanov taking the top place with an unbeaten 15 point maximum and the fastest time of the meeting set in his first race. Second was former World Champion Dmitry Khomitsevich who dropped his only point to Bogdanov. Third place was secured by Sweden’s Ove Ledström.
Austrian Harald Simon finished fourth and might have been on the rostrum had he not fallen in Heat 17 and Franz Mayerbüchler by scoring 9 points erased the memories of his last meeting here when he failed to qualify.
There will be two Finnish riders in the championship with Aki Ala-Riihimäki and Max Koivula taking sixth and seventh places and the last of the qualifiers was Lukas Hutla from Czech Republic.
Unlucky Niclas Svensson, a late substitute for Jimmy Olsén, fell in the first race and was not able to take his remaining rides. He complained of a little back pain but has no serious injury. Sweden’s hopes took a further blow as Jimmy Hörnell lost his chance of moving into the next stage by falling in Heat 19 when two points would have taken him into the top eight.
Polish hopeful Michael Knapp finished last in all the races he completed and could not be happy with his three point score and there was similar disappointment for Dutchman Niek Schaap who finished a lowly 13th place.
Full results can be found HERE
The full line up for the Finals series is now known:
• Dinar Valeev (MFR)
• Daniil Ivanov (MFR)
• Dmitry Koltakov (MFR)
• Franz Zorn (Austria)
• Jasper Iwema (Holland)
• Johann Weber (Germany)
• Martin Haarahiltunen (Sweden)
• Nikita Bogdanov (MFR)
• Dmitry Khomitsevich (MFR)
• Ove Ledström (Sweden)
• Harald Simon (Austria)
• Franz Mayerbüchler (Germany)
• Aki Ala-Riihimäki (Finland)
• Max Koivula (Finland)
• Lukáš Hutla (Czech Republic)
Finals 1/2 will take place in Togliatti on the 12th-13th February and more details will be published when the draw has been made.
FIM/Graham Brodie