Permanent wild cards for the start in the Individual European Championship 2016 were given to Grigorij Laguta, Andzejs Lebedevs and Vaclav Milik. Let's take a closer look at their achievements at the speedway tracks. Quite a big discussion evolved after the lack of nomination to Patryk Dudek. This information was numerously commented by the fans.
Organizers, though, defend their decision and think that the chosen riders are the ones, who will make some good starts in the series and their performances will positively influence speedway's popularization in the countries they're representing.
Definitely the most recognizable and talented among these three is older Laguta brother. Russian is an incredibly colourful figure in the speedway community. His unbelievable skills has been presented numerously at the tracks of PGE Ekstraliga, during the national team matches or in the Speedway Best Pairs and Speedway Euro Championship. His spectacular tackles have been taking the breath away in fans' lungs and in this season it's the fans in Rybnik, who can admire his ride.
He's one of the "Sharks" leaders - the biggest revelation of Polish Ekstraliga in this season - he was also riding great during the world's best pair rivalry, where along with his teammates from Nice Racing, got the third place in the overall classification. One of the biggest Laguta's success is the Individual European Championship from 2011, Individual Internationl Ekstraliga Championship in the last season and the bronze in the first edition of SEC (2013). Grisha's presence among the finalists will surely bring a lot of joy and positive emotions. Definitely, he's going to be involved in fighting for the top aims.
Andzejs Lebedevs is one of the most talented Latvian riders and a solid point of Lokomotiv Daugavpils - last year's winners and this year's leaders in NICE Polska Liga Żużlowa. Latvian team got his successes also thanks to Lebedevs, who was representing his country in the European Championship as a junior (2013). In this year's rivalry, he'll want to show his best, especially during the round at his home track (6.08.2015).
Lebedevs is also a silver medalist of the Individual Speedway Junior European Championship (2013) and world's fourth junior (2013). Last of three, nominated to this year's SEC - Vaclav Milik got his debut in this series one year ago. In 2012 and 2014 he got the individual championship title of his country and became the European's top junior (2014). Since a very beginning of the season in PGE Ekstraliga he's one of the top riders of the PGE Ekstraliga's vice-champions - Betard Sparta Wrocław. He's been the biggest hope of the Czech speedway, trying to follow their great traditions in this sport.