Malmö-legendaren Jesper Mattsson lämnar skåningarna och bryter därmed kontraktet som assisterande tränare.

Redhawks och Mattsson har i samförstånd valt den här lösningen, meddelar klubben på hemsidan.

Skåningen har varit assisterande tränare i Malmö i flera år i följd.

Mattsson har framför allt gjort sig ett namn som spelare, där gjorde många fina säsonger i den svenska högstaligan (Färjestad och Frölunda i övrigt) och fick chansen i Tre Kronor flera gånger.

Tough competition

Before the U21 Swedish Championship final in Målilla on 1 August, only two riders were considered to be in the running for the Gold - Masarna's Philip Hellström-Bängs and Vetlanda/ Piraterna's Alexander Woentin.

Woentin had won the competition for three year's in a row, is Sweden's only representative in the U21 World Championships and in 2021 has raced his first ever season in Poland with Tarnow in eWinner 1.

Hellström-Bängs was second behind Woentin last year and the week after this junior final he would take Silver in the U19 European Championships as well as racing with Start Gniezno in Poland.

Kumla's talented kids

But that meant that people had forgotten the hard work that has been going on at Kumla, where Indianerna have been investing in their youth programme and are now seeing results.

Behind the two more well-known names in last year's U21 final were the Grahn brothers, Jonatan Grahn (born 2000) and Gustav Grahn (born 2004) in the third and fourth places respectively. Gustav was only 16 yrs and in his first season on a 500 cc when he finished just outside the medals.

Winning ways

This year, Gustav did not just get on the podium for the first time, he won the whole competition.

"I know that I like the track at Målilla and if I did well in the qualifiers I would have a chance," he says about his thoughts before the competition, "and I felt confident because I was using my favourite engine," he adds.

Only the top three riders in the qualifying heats were guaranteed a place in the final. Then there would be a single semi-final heat where the winner would take the last remaining place in the deciding Heat 22.

Great speed from the start

After three Rounds, Gustav had only dropped one point and had beaten his older brother and Lejonen's Casper Henriksson, who is also having a excellent season in the Swedish leagues.

Then came Heat 14, where he would have to go head-to-head with the 2020 gold and silver medalists. However, it was not one of last year's finalists but Piraterna's William Björling who was away from tapes first, closely followed by Grahn. The Indianerna rider had got ahead of Woentin in third and, in last place, Hellström-Bängs. The four raced around in a tight pack, but without changing position and Grahn finished the heat in second knowing he had taken points from his biggest two rivals.

"I had great speed right from the start of the competition," he remembers, "but I tried not to think about the overall score. I just sat on the bike at the start of each heat and tried to take it easy," he says about his way of dealing with the mounting pressure.

It worked.

He finished the five qualifying races with 13 points from 15, the same as Henriksson, but the Indianerna rider was placed first having beat his Lejonen rival.

Winning the final

Leading the qualifiers meant he was able to choose the inside gate for the final, the same one he had beaten Henriksson from in Heat 7. Grahn did not squander the opportunity. He took the start and was first out and was able to hold the lead all the way to the checkered flag.

"It was hard to really take it in at the time, it was only after the lap of honour and then eveyone celebrating that I could really enjoy it. It was a great honour to go up on the podium," he says with a smile.

"This is a great step up in my career," he continues and then he adds, "But I'm only 17 years old, I don't need to have it all right now and I've still got four more years as a junior," he explains, "But it means I can relax when it comes to these bigger competitions because I know I can do it".

Promising League results

Gustav Grahn is U21 Swedish national champion for 2021. But, of course, he is also active in the top three Swedish speedway leagues.

He is 5th place in the individual rankings for Division 1, where he has a 2.407 average and his team, Indianerna, are in first position.

Meanwhile, he has raced in every match in Allsvenskan and there he has a heat average of 1.282. That puts him at 26th in the individual rankings, only 0.303 pts behind older brother, Jonatan. And with Indianerna B in first place with two rounds to go, Gustav is guaranteed playoff speedway in Sweden's second division this year.

And the Junior Swedish champion has now raced 10 heats in Elitserien with Kumla Indianerna and, whilst that it is not enough to have an official average, he can still be proud of a 0.400 average at Sweden's most senior level.

Hard to believe it is only his second year at 500cc. It seems like there is a bright future ahead of this Kumla star.

Daniel Gunnarsson - som är en av Västerås prestigevärvningar - är imponerad av VIK som klubb i allmänhet.

Stjärnbacken, med ett förflutet i exempelvis Leksand och Färjestad, anser till och med att västmanlänningarna är på samma nivå som vissa SHL-klubbar sett till organisationen.

- Det är positivt. Nu har jag varit i SHL tidigare, men det känns som att den här organisationen är på samma nivå som de andra klubbarna jag varit hos. Det finns alla förutsättningar att vara ett topplag i den här serien, och även att vara med och kriga om en SHL-plats. Standarden på killarna i laget och allt runt omkring är bra klass, säger Daniel Gunnarsson till VLT-sporten.

Den 29-årige liraren med Tre Kronor-meriterna får en nyckelroll på backsidan i Västerås och blir en viktig kugge i VIK:s jakt på att utmana om SHL-platsen till våren.

Målvakten Johan Gustafsson och forwarden Anton Svensson utgör ett par andra exempel på tunga namn som Västerås har förstärkt med inför den här säsongen.

SHL-meriterade Alexander Younan lämnar Västerås efter tre år i klubben, men kör vidare i HockeyAllsvenskan.

Västervik blir nästa anhalt för den juniorlandslagsmeriterade HV71-produkten.

Sportchefen Emil Georgsson om den 24-årige backen.

- Alexander är en tvåvägsback som kan ligan bra. Han har fått spela en hel del defensivt de senaste säsongerna och gjort det bra, men är också bra på sätta igång spelet bakifrån, säger VIK:s sportchef till klubbens hemsida.

Thursday’s match sees Dackarna face Rospiggarna at Målilla, the venue of last Saturday’s SGP. That means six of the team’s were in action on Tuesday night with Masarna taking a break this week. However, heavy rain just before the match in Kumla meant the meet was postponed and rescheduled for Thursday 26 August.

To see individuals' scorers, go to Zuzelend.

Västervik v Lejonen #WMSKLEJ

Lejonen won at home by 46:44 so tonight’s match was also about the bonus point with four SGP riders present – Västervik have recently signed Fredrik Lindgren, whilst the Gislaved team had Robert Lambert, Oliver Berntzon and Krzysztof Kasprzak in the team.

The match started out even and the team’s when into the first track break after Heat 3 at 9:9. Mads Hansen took an impressive Heat 2 victory for the home team when Lejonen’s Lambert and Berntzon cleverly boxed out Lindgren at the start, whilst allowing the Opole rider to cruise ahead.

But the match turned suddenly after this to the home team’s advantage as they took four 5:1s in five heats (4, 6-8) to lead 34:20 at the second track preparation pause.

Heat 7 saw Västervik’s Noel Wahlqvist (pictured) hold off Jakub Miskowiak and Rohan Tungate for an impressive 2 points for the Swede who is only 17 years old. Heat 9 also saw Lejonen’s Linus Eklöf come first ahead of none less that Lindgren.

By Heat 13 the home side had won the victory and the bonus point ending up winners by 54:36 (100:90). The win also takes Västervik upto second place in the league behind Smederna.

Top Scorers:

Wiktor Kulakov WMSK 13+1

Jakub Miskowiak LEJ 9

____________________________________

Smederna v Piraterna #SMEDPIR

The current league leaders host the bottom of the table team in Eskilstuna and were favourites to retain the bonus point after winning 43:47 in Motala.

However, at the first break after Heat 3 Piraterna were holding their own with the match at 10:8 to Smederna. But as has happened before with the Motala side they then went to pieces losing all but one of the next six heats. That meant it was 37:17 at the break before Heat 10.

Two heats later and the home side completed the victory and by the end of the match it was 60:30 and the win and the bonus point were easily secured for the league's top side.

Top scorers:

Pontus Aspgren SMED 13+1

Tomas H Jonasson PIR 9

1. Oscar Alsenfelt, Malmö

Skåningarna har något rätt så lovande på gång. Det beror dels på vassa nyförvärv, men även att ett antal viktiga spelare är kvar sedan tidigare. Framför allt Oscar Alsenfelt. Den rutinerade målvakten är ett pålitligt kort och har varit en toppburväktare i SHL i flera år.

2. Jhonas Enroth, Örebro

Närke-gänget tog nästa steg förra säsongen. Det hade välmeriterade Jhonas Enroth stor del i. En målvakt som gör att Örebro har kapacitet att utmana de bästa i SHL om allt klaffar.

3. Joel Lassinantti, Luleå

Luleå har ett suveränt målvaktspar i form av väletablerade Joel Lassinantti och jättetalangen Jesper Wallstedt. Det är mycket möjligt att den sistnämnde kommer få en bättre karriär i slutändan, men Lassinantti sticker ut mest som läget är nu på förhand.

4. Marcus Högberg, Linköping

Linköping utgör definitivt en av SHL-klubbarna som har förstärkt målvaktsbesättningen bäst inför den här säsongen. Marcus Högberg är en spelare med stjärnkaraktär, som ger LHC genuin spets på målvaktssidan.

5. Christoffer Rifalk, Rögle

Norrbottningen var bra i SHL redan säsongen 2020/2021, varpå han tog nästa steg i fjol och utvecklades till en klassmålvakt på den här nivån. Christoffer Rifalk var inte minst framträdande i slutspelet. Det går definitivt att argumentera för att Rifalk till och med kan vara en topp tre-målvakt i SHL under nuvarande omständigheter. En smaksak helt enkelt.

Läs även:

Plats 6-10