Two Dmitrys - Down to the wire

They came in their thousands to Assen last weekend to the fourth event of this years’s Astana Expo FIM Ice Speedway Gladiators World Championship series. They came to see the latest event in what is proving to be the closest championship for many years and also to wish a fond farewell to a much loved venue.

The De Bonte Wever Stadium, the long term home to the Dutch round of the championship, has a date with the bulldozers shortly and this was the last ice race event to be held at this iconic venue – and what a memorable farewell party this proved to be! Thanks to the hard work of the organisers and officials who prepared a splendid track and the commited approach of the riders, the fans were rewarded with some of the most entertaining racing seen this year.  

After an enthralling two days of top ice action, Russia’s Dmitry Khomitsevich shares the overall lead with his CSKA teammate, current World Champion Dmitry Koltakov. Both have 138 points and the destination of the medals will be decided later this week when the last final of the season takes place in Inzell, Germany.
Khomitsevich has struck a rich vein of form and dominated the first day’s event, racing to an undefeated maximum taking him from fourth place to the top of the leader board. He duly completed a double by winning on the second day despite dropping a couple of points on the way. In the Final however he made no mistake, jetting from the start and leaving Koltakov and Daniil Ivanov to continue their on track rivalry with a riveting race for the minor places.

Franz Zorn was fourth at the end of the qualifiers beating two Russians in the process. In his semi final he led the young Russian Egor Myshkovets until the last lap and was disappointed that he was not able to reach his first final of the year but his results in Assen place him comfortably clear of the other leading westerners.  Ove Ledström continued his successful run moving into the last eight for the second successive day and the remaining semi final spots were filled by Gunter Bauer and Igor Kononov whose medal chances disappeared with an inconsistent performance over both days. 

Leading scorers after Final 4 (Assen scores in brackets):
•Dmitry Koltakov  (18,20) 138
•Dmitry Khomitsevich (21,19)138
•Daniil Ivanov (17,17)133
•Igor Kononov (11,12)121
•Egor Myshkovets(11,12)95.5
•Franz Zorn (13,13)91
•Ove Ledström (10,8)57
•Stefan Svensson (3,7)54