ZMARZLIK AND MICHELSEN WIN PGE EKSTRALIGA AWARDS

Speedway GP duo Bartosz Zmarzlik and Mikkel Michelsen both received top honours at the PGE Ekstraliga Gala in Warsaw on Monday.

The annual awards evening honours the best riders in the world’s top speedway league, with Speedway GP and SGP2 stars featuring heavily on the list of nominees – selected by 2010 world champion Tomasz Gollob and legendary Polish coach Marek Cieslak.

Triple world champion Zmarzlik collected another prize as he was crowned Polish Rider of the Year, winning the public vote on 38.50 percent ahead of Dominik Kubera, who polled 31.48 percent. Janusz Kolodziej took third place, with Patryk Dudek fourth and Jaroslaw Hampel fifth.

Zmarzlik also carried off the trophy for Race of the Year, won for his heroics in heat 13 of Gorzow’s match at Lublin on August 7.

Danish racer Michelsen led Lublin to the club’s first-ever top-flight title this season, and this comfortably saw him voted the league’s Foreign Rider of the Year. Michelsen triumphed on 40.78 percent of the vote, with Gorzow star Martin Vaculik second on 21.83, Czestochowa’s world No.2 Leon Madsen third on 17.61, Torun racer Robert Lambert fourth on 16.43 and Gorzow’s Anders Thomsen fifth with 3.35.

Torun wild card Kacper Woryna carried off the Surprise of the Year prize on 38.54 percent, narrowly beating double Speedway GP winner Dan Bewley, who notched 38.12 percent of the vote.

SGP2 world champion Mateusz Cierniak was named Junior of the Year, claiming 40.19 of votes cast, with Nice FIM SGP2 of Poland – Torun winner Jakub Miskowiak second on 38.62 percent. Wroclaw’s Bartlomiej Kowalski was third, with Mateusz Swidnicki fourth and Wiktor Lampart fifth.

Champions Lublin claimed the Team of the Year award, with Ostrow collecting the prize for best under-24 team, despite the seniors suffering relegation.

Gorzow boss Stanislaw Chomski was crowned Coach of the Year on 29.89 percent after leading his side to the PGE Ekstraliga play-off final. Title-winning Lublin chief Jacek Ziolkowski took second place on 28.90.

The prizes are named Szczakiels in honour of Poland’s 1973 world champion Jerzy Szczakiel, and a Golden Szczakiel was presented to record PGE Ekstraliga appearance-maker Piotr Protasiewicz, after the former Speedway GP rider announced his retirement at the end of the season.