Tonight in Eskilstuna Nyköping Griparna were victorious in the Allsvenskan championship taking a narrow 91-89 win on aggregate over hosts, Team Rapid.
The deciding match in the second division of Swedish speedway came down to the final heat when Oliver Berntzon (pictured) and Peter Ljung took a 2:4 victory as Rapid's Pontus Aspgren finished in second and Linus Eklöf fell enabling the visitors take Allsvenskan Gold.
Griparna travelled to Eskilstuna with a eight point advantage over Team Rapid from last week's fixture. They also had the psychological advantage knowing that they were the only team in the regular season to beat Rapid at home in Eskilstuna Motorstadion.
But in another even match, as it had been last week in Nyköping, it was the home team who were on the offensive slowly eating away their deficit and closing in on victory. And when Aspgren, who was their top scorer with 13, and Victor Palovaara took a 4:2 victory in the penultimate heat it set up a winner- takes-all Heat 15 with the teams level on 87 points each.
It was Griparna's top two scorers on the night who would win Gold for the team with that 2:4 in the final heat. Veteran Ljung amassed 10 points and Berntzon dropping just a single point, with 14, for the victors.
Berntzon and Eklöf, who faced each other in Heats 8 and 15 tonight, will be opponents again on Tuesday and Wednesday next week when Målilla Dackarna (Berntzon) and Eskilstuna Smederna (Eklöf) meet in Elitserien final.
