SEVEN-DAY BRITISH BAN FOR LAGUTA

Former Speedway GP world champion Artem Laguta has been handed a seven-day ban from Britain’s Sport Insure Premiership after missing King’s Lynn’s 65-25 drubbing at Wolverhampton on Monday night.

In a confusing series of events, King’s Lynn suggested British racer Chris Harris had been placed on standby to cover for Laguta, who they suggested was carrying an ankle injury.

This information was included in the club’s preview for their trip to Wolves, published before Laguta raced to nine paid 10 points in Wroclaw’s PGE Ekstraliga win at Krosno on Sunday. The Stars later confirmed Harris would be replacing the injured Laguta.

However, following the Wolves match, the Speedway Control Bureau then released a statement on Tuesday morning, suggesting Laguta had missed the Wolves match after “falling ill after competing for his Polish team Wroclaw”, with the SCB informed of his absence on Monday morning.

An SCB statement confirmed: “Subsequently the SCB received medical documentation at 1.30pm confirming that Mr Laguta had suffered from food poisoning and was unable to travel to the UK and advised to rest for a period of at least two days.”

With Laguta missing the Wolves meeting due to illness rather than injury, he has been hit with a seven-day ban.

The SCB statement added: “Due to missing this fixture through a non-speedway injury/sickness as per SCB Regulation 010.5 H – Mr Laguta’s SCB Registration will now be suspended for a period of seven days.”

Fortunately for King’s Lynn, they have no fixtures during this period of time, with Nicolai Klindt and Thomas Jorgensen already due to represent them in the Sport Insure Premiership Pairs at Leicester on Thursday.