Australia Gets Bronze In The Speedway World Cup - July 2013

July 21, 2013 by Gillman Media

Australia finished third in a dramatic Monster Energy Speedway World Cup Final at the Marketa Stadium in Prague last night.

Going into the last round of heats, after sixteen of the twenty heats, Denmark and Poland were level with 32 points each with Australia just three points behind with 29.

At that stage Australia was also the only nation which had not finished last in a heat, and when Darcy Ward won heat 17, they trailed by just two points, with Poland on 34, Denmark 33 and Australia 32, but over the last three heats Denmark and Poland had just a little too much fire-power for them.

Heat 18 saw a win for Nicki Pedersen of Denmark, with Vaclav Milik of the Czech Republic a surprise second placegetter ahead of Patryk Dudek of Poland and Jason Doyle, which meant Denmark now led on 36 points to Poland’s 35 and Australia’s 32. While Dudek’s third place saw Poland lose the lead, his inside pass on Doyle in the final corner was to prove very important in the final tally.

In heat 19, it was a win for Maciej Janowski of Poland ahead of Denmark’s captain Niels-Kristian Iversen (with Cameron Woodward third) which meant Denmark and Poland went into the final heat tied on 38 points. Australia was on 33 and now certain to finish with the bronze medal.

The final heat was somewhat anti-climactic, unless you were a Pole, as Hampel raced into the lead with Danish teenager Michael Jepsen Jensen in last place. Jensen eventually got up into second so Poland won the championship by just one point, 41 to 40.

Results:

Poland 41: Jaroslaw Hampel 15 (3-0-3-6-3), Maciej Janowski 12 (2-2-2-3-3), Krzysztof Kasprzak 7 (2-2-1-R-2), Patryk Dudek 7 (2-2-2-0-1).

Denmark 40 : Niels-Kristian Iversen 12 (1-3-3-3-2), Kenneth Bjerre 11 (1-3-3-3-1), Nicki Pedersen 10 (3-3-1-R-3), Michael Jepsen Jensen 7 (0-3-2-0-2).

Australia 33 : Troy Batchelor 11 (2-1-6-2-0), Darcy Ward 9 (1-1-2-2-3), Cameron Woodward 8 (3-1-1-2-1), Jason Doyle 5 (1-1-1-2-0).

Czech Republic 12 : Ales Dryml 7 (3-2-0-1-1), Vaclav Milik 3 (0-0-FX-1-2), Lukas Dryml 1 (0-0-N-1-FX), Josef Franc (0-T-0-1-0).

Photo: The Australian team on the podium after winning Thursday night’s Race Off. From left to right: Troy Batchelor, Darcy Ward, Jason Doyle, Cameron Woodward and Mark Lemon. Photo courtesy of Petr Makušev (Czech Republic).