European Individual Grass Track Championship SF1: the round in Germany
Photo credit: Jesper Veldhuizen
The 2019 European Individual Grass Track Championship got off to a great start with some very hard and competitive racing in front of about 4.000 spectators on an extremely hot day (29°) at the Leineweberring in Bielefeld in the north of Germany.
The official start of the meeting was delayed by ¾ hour due to work undertaken by the track maintenance team (watering, rolling and grading), to try and combat the dusty conditions experienced during practice.
The event finally got underway on the very fast 700 metre oval, and racing was fast and furious, producing both exciting and close racing in a number of the qualifying heats.
In the Final, English Chris Harris, who was unbeaten up to this point, joined two German riders (Diener and Dilger) two Czech Republic riders (Malik and Franc) and the French Mathieu Tresarrieu.
The Final was a close run event but with Harris getting filled in on the first corner, leaving Tresarrieu, to race to a worthy win.
The top nine riders from the Bielefeld Semi Final will join a further nine riders who will qualify from the 2nd Semi Final which will be held on the 23rd June, at Leamington Spa in the UK. These 18 riders will then compete against one another at the European Final at Bad Hersfeld, Germany, on 17th August.
Stay tuned to see who will be crowned the 2019 FIME European Individual Grass Track Champion!
