A cold and rainy evening in Pardubice in the Czech Republic saw Polish 21 year old, Maksym Drabik (Wroclaw/ Lejonen) take Gold in the Fogo FIM Speedway U21 World Championship by four points.
Although he was third in the final, won by Russian Gleb Chugunov (Wroclaw/ Smederna), it was enough to take victory from compatriots Bartosz Smektala (Lezsno/ Västervik) and Dominik Kubera (Leszno/ Vetlanda).
Kubera started the competition one point ahead of Drabik, but a last place in Heat 15 meant he was last to choose his starting gate for the semi final. And from the outside wearing the yellow helmet he again scored 0, whilst Drabik won the first semi to clinch the U21 World Championship.
Last year's winner, Smektala, started the evening in third place in the General Classification and had excellent qualifying heats coming either first or second to give him the first choice of gates in the semis. From the inside track he won the second semi to give himself a chance to steal the second place overall from Kubera.
The 2018 Junior World Champion needed to win the final to take the Silver, but instead was second behind a flying Chugunov who came from last place to first with some fantastic overtaking on the outside to take this Junior SGP race. The Russian would also finish fourth in the overall standings.
But that led to a dramatic Silver medal race off between the two Polish teammates from champions, Lezsno. Smektala started on the inside and Kubera chose to start as far away as possible from his rival, neatly tucked in by the fence. But it would be Smektala's race as he gated well and Kubera failed to find the necessary speed from the outside to overtake the older Pole.
So Smektala took U21 Silver to add to his fifth place in the SEC, sealing a Polish 1-2-3 as Drabik was crowned this year's Junior World Champion and Kubera, who is the only one of the trio who will be eligible to compete nest year, taking the Bronze.
