Per Jonsson

[admin]

This little piece of information should really go in our international section, but knowing the continued standing Per Jonsson has among Reading supporters, I thought it perhaps more appropriate to go here.
It looks as if Per Jonsson will be the "guest of honour" for Unibax Torun as they open their new stadium - Jonsson, who spent his whole time riding in Poland for the Torun club (and is credited with helping start the careers of the likes of Krzyzaniak, Kowalik, Sawina and Jagus), is as widely admired in the city of Copernicus as he is in Reading and Stockholm, and he will be making the symbolic first lap of the new stadium.
The following should be a translation of a rather splendid article (Per Jonsson - champion in the heart of Torun) from the sportowefakty.pl site:

translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=pl&u=http://www.sportowefakty.pl/zuzel/2009/04/15/mateusz-jach-jonsson-champion-z-toruniem-w-sercu/&ei=t43mSeqQCoTG-AaCwd2_BQ&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=2&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dsportowefakty%2Bjonsson%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26rlz%3D1G1GGLQ_ENUK310

Maybe in 2010 he'll be doing the same at Reading's new stadium - we can but hope.

[Deleted]

Per is still as much a hero in Torun as he is in Reading so it's no surprise to me that he's been asked as guest of honour to open their new stadium.

It was initially planned that Per would ride the last laps at Smallmead back in October, unfortunately though the meeting clashed with his wife's 40th birthday celebrations so we were deprived from seeing our hero on the track he became so dominant on one last time, but that would be more than made up for if he too was first to take to the track at a new stadium in Reading.

I find it all rather touching that although it's coming up for 15 years since's Per's fateful accident he's still a big part of the clubs he rode for, and that the man can still put extra numbers on the gate when he makes a public visit to these clubs.