It was a case of “we three Kings” in Gdansk, Poland this afternoon albeit two of them former as the three riders who ended the 2019 season as the Heat Leader trio for the Kent TouchTec Kings, Drew Kemp, Anders Rowe, and Dan Gilkes donned the GB race jackets to take on six other nations in the European U19 Pairs Championship.

It was a successful trip for the youngsters as they finished as bronze medallists. This was decided by a run off after Team GB tied with hosts Poland behind winners Latvia.

It was Drew Kemp and Anders Rowe who began proceedings for Great Britain in Heat 3, and they got off to a great start with Kemp making a lightning quick start and Rowe picking up the third place point over the Denmark duo for a 4-2 (the 3 2 1 scoring system was used). This was followed up in fantastic style against Germany with a 5-1 (a familiar scoreline against Germany!) in Heat 7 over the eventual wooden spoonist. This gave Team GB 9 after their opening two rides.

Things did not go so smoothly in the middle part of the meeting as only a further four points were gained as, Rowe and Kemp conceded a 5-1 to the surprise package victorious Latvian duo of Ernest Matjuszonok and Francis Gusts in Heat 11. The Brits were out again two races later against the hosts, this race saw Anders Rowe come to grief and earnt himself a disqualification, Kemp won the resulting re-run and Rowe took no further part in the meeting paving the way for the current Kent rider Dan Gilkes to enter the fray.

Kemp and Gilkes took a maximum 5-1 over the Czech Republic after a clash between Gilkes and Czezh rider Daniel Klima. This resulted in disqualification for Klima and a tapes to flag maximum heat advantage for Team GB. The last race saw Kemp take his 5th win of the meeting while Gilkes who was given a second outing fell at the back. This shared heat necessitated the run off between Poland and Team GB. The run off was won by Poland’s Mateusz Cierniak.

Dan Gilkes commented,

‘It was an absolutely amazing weekend, I gained so much experience and learnt loads during the whole weekend. It was tough to come in mid meeting but was awesome to get some racing.’

Scores:

Latvia 28, Poland 21, Team GB 21 (Drew Kemp 15, Anders Rowe 4, Dan Gilkes 2) Denmark 17, Sweden 15, Czech Republic 13, Germany 11.

GB Heat results:

HT3: Kemp, Knudsen, Rowe, Hjerrild 66.5

HT7: Kemp, Rowe, Bloedorn, Ernst 67.22

HT11: Matjuszonok, Gusts, Rowe, Kemp, 66.65

HT13: Kemp, Curzytek, Cierniak, Rowe (FX) 67.07

HT16: Kemp, Gilkes, Chlupac, Klima (FX) 67.25

HT21: Kemp, Henriksson, Wahlqvist, Gilkes (Fell) 67.25