The Tauron SEC championship 2019 finished in the most highly dramatic possible way - with not one, but two, race offs for the final medal places.
Danish Mikkel Michelsen won Round 4 of the competition in Chorzów, Poland. But more importantly for the whole championship, Russian Grigorij Laguta did not make it to the final. Whilst he had a four point lead over the Dane before the match tonight in Chorzow, Michelsen's final win gave both competitors a total of 47 points. That meant the Gold had to be decided in a race off between the two riders.
And even though Laguta gated better and had the lead in the race off, he made a mistake and over-cooked the second turn as he roared through on the inside. As he slowed and caught his balance, Michelsen was able to overtake and never let the lead slip.
But as if that wasn't enough, another Dane, Leon Madsen and the Pole Kacper Woryna also had a race off for the Bronze.
It was won by the Dane, who has had a perfect season, apart from his injury which almost certainly denied him a second European championship in a row.
But you cannot help feeling sorry for Woryna who finished fourth. He was leading the race off against Madsen with the home crowd shouting him on, when suddenly his bike started to smoke and then slow dramatically until it stopped leaving the Dane to fly past him with ease and collect the Bronze.
