Emil Sayfutdinov didn't defend the Individual European Champion title. What's more, he didn't manage to qualify for the next year's Speedway Euro Championship series. If only Russian had had a bit more luck, he could've reached for another gold. This time... one heat was missing.
It all started with 9th position in the inaugural round in Güstrow. Sayfutdinov got one point and then got excluded in his first two heats, but later on, he was doing better and better. Despite reaching 7 points in three starts, he wasn't able to join the TOP 6 of the round in Germany. Luckily, it was really tight in the general top.
Meeting in Daugavpils started bad for Russian rider, when he ended the heat at 4th position. Later, though, "Russian Torpedo" let off and with no bigger problems, Sayfutdinov got himself into the race-off heat and from there, jumped to the final. There, he was fighting hard with Maxims Bogdanovs, which ended with Latvian's crash and his exclusion. In the heat's repeat, Sayfutdinov had to accept Laguta and Kylmaekorpi's supremacy, but at the end of the day it was Sayfutdinov taking the leader's position.
Many people were sharpening their teeth for the Russian battles at.. the Russian land. It started similarly as in Daugavpils. First, the 4th position came, then 2nd and 1st. Unfortunately, in his 4th start, Sayfutdinov fell on the track while fighting with Nicki Pedersen and the referee decided to exclude him from the heat's repeat. In the last series, Sayfutdinov didn't fit into the 2-minutes limit and got exluded once again.
Everything was about to settle in Rybnik. After fifth series of starts, situation was extremely interesting, because there were 5 riders having 37 points. Behind them, there was Emil with 35. When everything was going the right way for Russian rider, by winning the final, he was even able to cause the additional heat for the first place. It did not happen though.
Poor start in the final brought the 4th position in the round and 7th in general classification. Will Emil Sayfutdinov try once again to reach for the champion title?
