After difficult circumstances leading up to the 2017 Speedway World Cup, Team Australia will not contest the Final for the first time since 2010. The Aussies went down to Russia in Leszno Poland in a crushing defeat. Russia will proceed to the Final.

 Aussie icon and highly decorated Speedway competitor, Jason Doyle made a last minute return to action after he sat out Event 1 at King’s Lynn last Saturday as the Australians’ lost out to Great Britain in the race for the Final. The return of Doyle was not enough however, to get the Australians over the line. 

Australian team manager Mark Lemon was left to rue his side’s misfortune as they fell short of the Speedway World Cup Final.

Lemon said; “I’m pretty disappointed. It’s just how it has gone; we haven’t really had much luck this year. You need a lot of luck in these competitions. It obviously started with Jason Doyle sustaining the foot injury and then Nick Morris missing out with a head injury. That put us on the back foot straight away. Jason returned, but we came up against very gutsy Russia and Latvia teams. They’re very dialled in on these tracks, we didn’t get the rub of the green.”

Highlights of the night included:

– Russian U19 rider producing an exceptional standout performance, scoring highly.

– Latvia still managing to score well despite running without a reserve rider.

– 18-year-old Californian competitor Luke Becker had an emotional win in his first World Cup campaign.

Australia can be proud of the way they fought under trying circumstances, however missing out on the Final is disappointing nonetheless.

Race Off Scores

1 RUSSIA 46: 1 Emil Sayfutdinov 15, 2 -, 3 Vadim Tarasenko 10, 4 Andrei Kudriashov 10, 5 Gleb Chugunov 11.

 2 AUSTRALIA 33: 1 Jason Doyle 12, 2 Sam Masters 2, 3 Chris Holder 6, 4 Troy Batchelor 7, 5 Max Fricke 6.

 3 LATVIA 30: 1 Kasts Puodzuks 4, 2 Jevgenijs Kostigovs 6, 3 Andzejs Lebedevs 18, 4 Maksims Bogdanovs 2, 5 No Rider.

4 USA 15: 1 Ricky Wells 6, 2 Gino Manzares 2, 3 Luke Becker 4, 4 Dillon Ruml 1, 5 Broc Nicol 2.

 

SWC FINAL LINE-UPS

 SWEDEN (RED): 1 Antonio Lindback, 2 Fredrik Lindgren ©, 3 Linus Sundstrom, 4 Andreas Jonsson, 5 Joel Kling (U21).

 POLAND (BLUE): 1 Patryk Dudek, 2 Maciej Janowski ©, 3 Piotr Pawlicki, 4 Bartosz Zmarzlik, 5 Bartosz Smektala (U21).

 GREAT BRITAIN (WHITE): 1 Steve Worrall, 2 Chris Harris, 3 Robert Lambert, 4 Craig Cook , 5 Adam Ellis (U21).

 RUSSIA (YELLOW): 1 Emil Sayfutdinov ©, 2 -, 3 Vadim Tarasenko, 4 Andrei Kudriashov, 5 Gleb Chugunov (U21).