Andzejs Lebedevs is the only Speedway Euro Championship winner who did not win a single round of the competition in the season he became champion. His high scoring and consistent form made the Latvian take home the trophy for the 2017 Individual European Champion.
Lebedevs started SEC 2017 by scoring 11 points during the inaugural round in Toruń. He finished the competition at Motoarena in third place, but was second in the interim classification of the series. The tournament was won by Jaroslaw Hampel, who started with a "wild card" and scored 17 points. Vaclav Milik scored one point more than the Latvian rider.
The second round was held in Güstrow. Lebedevs started with one point in the heat 2, but in the following races he was much faster. Three wins and two second places made him score a total of 14 points. The Latvian finished in Güstrow on the second place - just behind Artem Laguta.
The third round of SEC 2017 took place in Hallstavik. As it later turned out, it was extremely important in the context of the Individual European Championship medal distribution. Vaclav Milik won the meeting, but the best scoring rider was Andreas Jonsson, who got 14 and came close to the riders fighting for the top places. This competition was the successful one for Lebedevs. The Latvian scored 13 points, which before the last round of the SEC made his lead over rivals grow from two to four points.
Lebedevs came to Lublin as the leader with 38 points - four more than Milik and six more than Laguta and Jonsson. The beginning of the competition was not good for him. Three points after two series of starts made his rivals catch up, but in the second part of the competition everything was back to normal. In the next four races Lebedevs scored 11 out of 12 possible points and after the 20th race he celebrated winning the title of Individual European Champion.
In the end, the Latvian finished SEC 2017 in first place, with seven points ahead of Artem Laguta and eight points more than Vaclav Milik.
