The Lakeside Hammers Finnish international, Joonas Kylmakorpi, was involved in an horrendous crash during last night’s Sky Sports Elite League match away at Eastbourne. He dislocated a shoulder and will be sidelined from the Sport for around 14 days.
The accident occurred during heat 14 of the match down at Eastbourne’s Arlington stadium and shocked not only those present but also the large audience watching the meeting live on Sky Sports. Kylmakorpi tangled with Eastbourne’s Australian rider Cameron Woodward down the back straight with Woodward clipping the fence. Both rides took heavy falls but the Australian was able to walk back to the pits unaided. However, the Hammers rider was not as fortunate as he had to take an ambulance ride off the track. It was diagnosed that Kylmakorpi had dislocated his shoulder and required a trip to the local hospital. The shoulder was put back in place and x-rays revealed no broken bones.
The injury to the Hammers key reserve, which is similar to that sustained by their captain, Adam Shields, earlier this season, will mean that Team Manager, Jon Cook, will need to bring in either the Club’s official No8, Chris Mills, or find suitable guest cover from the Premier League whilst the Finn is out of action.
The Hammers have an important Elite League Knockout Cup tie coming up later this week against the Peterborough Panthers with the first leg on Thursday away at the Panthers East of England Showground and the return leg 24 hours later, on Friday 20th June, at the Arena-Essex Raceway. Chris Mills is not available for the trip up to Peterborough on Thursday as he has a meeting the same evening at Redcar for his Premier League side, Reading. However, he will be replacing Kylmakorpi on Friday for the second leg.
The Hammers home leg against the Panthers is scheduled to start at 8pm with those supporters who are able to arrive at the Raceway earlier there will be a series of junior heats commencing at 6.45pm.
