ambassadors
The name of the FIM Ice Speedway Gladiators Champion will be known at the beginning of April as far as individual competition is concerned. Motul also partners the teams event organised since the end of the 1970s in a single prestige meet. On 11 and 12 March in Inzell, the Russian team on the strength of its three present references in the discipline, assumed its rank as the greatest favourite by beating Austria and Germany in front of 5,000 spectators.
True, Russia, the USSR or the CIS depending on the periods, have bagged nearly all the world titles in the teams competitions since they were first organised. Sweden, on several occasions, and also Germany, have however managed to place their name on the leaderboard. In the latest stagings, the Russians sometimes stared elimination in the face: in 2015, the Austrians bowed out by only 4 points and two years previously they scored the same number of points as the Russians... A complementary race had to be organised to decide between the two nations, in which Ivanov beat Zorn in a most singular duel.
This year, the gap was clearly more in favour of Motul rider, Dmitry Koltakov, and his team-mates, Igor Kononov and Dmitry Khomitsevich. Franz Zorn was the best individual performer allowing Austria, despite a team of just two, to beat Germany and bag the silver medal.
FIM Team Ice Speedway Gladiators World Championship ranking:
01 Russia (Koltakov, Kononov, Khomitsevich ), 60 pts
02 Austria (Zorn, Ebner), 45 pts
03 Germany (Bauer, Niedermaier, Weber), 41 pts
