PREVIEW: European Championships Day 1
The 2024 European Championships get underway tomorrow in Torun, Poland with action on both the Bielanska and Skierki tracks. The forst match of the day at 9am UK time (10am Polash time) is at the Bielanska track with a qualifying round for the Open Championship. There were originally 72 riders entered for the Open category but 2006 champion Damian Wozny, who was drawn in the 4th of the quarter finals, will not be taking part. Michal Szmaj, who was drawn in the 1st of the quarter finals, will also not be taking part
Of the 16 riders who are competing in the Open Qualifying Round 3 of them reached the final last time out at Astley & Tyldesley, Ashley Hill, Pawek Kozlowski and the defending champion Ben Mould. The 2015 World Champion Bartosz Grabowski is also in the qualifier, as is the current World Under 21 champion Mikolaj Menz. 5 Junior riders are also competing in the Open Qualifier as well as the Junior Championship, JJ Wildman, Arkadiusz Graczyk, Ryker Jolly, John White and the reigning junior World Champion Kenzie Bennett. Kozlowski will also take part in the Over 40’s competition as will Lukasz Rajewski and Tomasz Wlodarczyk. Also taking part in the qualifier are Borys Wojciechowski, Piotr Kuder, Damian Wojczynski and Michal Rodzen.The top 8 scorers will definitely advance to the quarter finals but that due to Wozny’s and Szmaj’s withdrawals this could become 10. This wasn’t confirmed at the time of writing.
The next action is at 10.30 am UK time (11.30am Polish time) with 2 Junior pre-qualifiers, one at Bielanska and one at Skierki. 27 riders will compete at Bielanska whilst 26 will line up at Skierki to reduce their numbers to 16 for their semi-finals which will be staged at the same tracks at 1.30pm UK time (2.30pm (Polish time). The top 8 scorers from each semi-final will qualify for the final on Sunday.
In between the Junior action at boith tracks there will be the Over 40’s semi-finals at midday UK time (1pm Polish time). The 2 semi-finals will each have 15 riders as Michal Szmaj and Damian Wozny have both withdrawn. 12 of the riders who qualified for the final last time at Astley & Tyldesley are entered this time and 7 of those will be in the semi-final at Bielanska, namely Marcin Szymanski (who was 3rd at Asdtley), Jacek Wleklik, Paddy Wenn, Tomasz Wlodarczyk, Dariusz Pilas, Daniel Kubiak and the 2014 champion Steve Harris. Tomasz Wejerowsksi, Jason Ashford, Arkadiusz Dudek (who is replacing Rafal Kurpiel), Andy Yard, Arkadiusz Slysz, Will Banyard, Marcin Banaszak and Mariusz Malecki complete the line-up
The semi-final at Skierki will see the other 5 riders who rode in the final at Astley in 2022 take part, Mark Winwood, Lukasz Rajewski, Pawel Kozlowski (who was runner-up at Astley), Craig marchant and Tomasz Szwajorek (who is replacing Steve Copping). Marcin Puk, Madrzak Krzysztof, Arkadiusz Hajost, Mariusz Malkowski, Steve Hammond, Craig Norton, Lukasz Kokott, Marek Juskowiak, Matt Parr and Radoslaw Sieradski complete the line up. The top 8 scorers from each semi-final will qualify for the final on Sunday.
Friday’s action will conclude with the Open Quarter Finals with 2 matches each at Bielanska and Skierki starting at 3.30pm and 5pm UK time resectively (4.30pm and 6pm Polish time). The 54 riders who were seeded to the quarter-finals will be joined by the riders from the qualifying round with the top 8 scorers from each qualifying for the semi-finals on Saturday.
Results will be available to view at this link: