Summary:
Team Fjelsted won the Danish Metal League Superfinale in Slangerup tonight with SEC riders Anders Thomsen and Peter Kildemand scoring 12 and 11 to lead the underdogs to victory in the four-way match.
The team finished fifth out of six in the regular season and had no current SGP riders in the team. But a narrow victory over Hans Andersen's GSK Liga and then a convincing win over Michael Jepsen Jensen's Region Varde Elitesport in the playoffs paved the way for a superfinale place. But few would have expected the team who only won four of their ten regular season games to triumph in tonight's final.
It wasThomsen's wins in Heats 8 and 10 that put Fjelsted in the lead and they never gave up until they were crowned Metal League champions 2019.
In depth review:
The Superfinale of the Danish Metal League was a four-way match between home team Slangerup Speedway, Esbjerg Vikings, Holsted Tigers and Team Fjelsted.
Holsted Tigers had won the regular season without losing a single game, thanks to Nicki Pedersen who competed in 9 of the seasons 10 races. But his broken hand sustained in Poland on 25 August has meant that the team has gone through the playoffs without the three times world champion.
The league is on a par with UK Premiership, Nice Liga 1 or Liga 2 in Poland so each team has riders you will recognised from international competitions and the national leagues:
Slangerup - Mikkel Michelsen, Andreas Lyager, Dawid Lampart
Esbjerg - Niels Kristian Iversen, Luke Becker
Holsted - Kenneth Bjerre (pictured), Nicolai Klindt, Rasmus Jensen
Fjelsted - Anders Thomsen, Frederik Jakobsen, Peter Kildemand
It would be hosts Slangerup who took the early lead through wins from Andreas Lyager and Mikkel Michelsen in Heats 3 and 4, but both would fade as the night went on. It would be Lyager who scored the most points for the team with just eight.
And Thomsen's double win in Heats 8 and 10 would put Fjelsted in the lead as the match developed into a three-horse-race between them, Holsted and Esbjerg.
Holsted had taken back the lead by the end of Heat 13 after Rene Bech, Kenneth Bjerre and then Nicolai Klindt won three heats in a row for the Tigers. Bjerre and Klindt would joint top scorers for them by finishing with 10 points.
For Esbjerg is was Niels Kristian Iversen who lead the way and he dropped just two points on the evening coming away with 13. In Heat 22, the last one of the evening, the SGP rider would come first whilst Holsted's Bjerre collected just one point. Those two points would separate the teams with the Vikings taking home the Silver.
But neither could catch Team Fjelsted. In the last ten Heats they scored two or more points in seven of them including three heat victories, one a piece from Kildemand, Thomsen and Jason Jörgensen to secure the victory and see the Team crowned national champions.
Final scores:
Team Fjelsted - 38
Esbjerg Vikings - 35
Holsted Tigers - 32
Slangerup Speedway - 26
Next year the Metal League is expected to expand but only one of the two expansion teams has declared itself ready to join the elite division. That means that Vojens Speedway Klub will join Team Fjelsted and the others in the Metal League 2020 whilst Brovst have said they will try to be ready for the 2021 season.
