Denmark booked their place in the World Cup Final with a terrific show of all-round strength in the second event of the tournament at Brandon.

All five Danish riders were in double figures, and the last place suffered by captain Hans Andersen in Heat 7 was the only time one of their team finished outside the top two in any of the 25 races.

World Champion Nicki Pedersen and a very impressive Kenneth Bjerre both dropped just one point apiece, although the Danes did have to fight off a strong mid-meeting challenge from Sweden.

The meeting looked set to be all one-way traffic when Denmark scored 14 points from the first 15 available, but a well-timed Swedish joker saw Jonas Davidsson take a maximum six points in Heat 10.

The Swedes chipped away and consecutive race wins for Andreas Jonsson, Davidsson and Daniel Nermark in Heats 12, 13 and 14 brought them level.

But the Danes steadied the ship, winning five of the next six races as Sweden suffered a succession of third places which ended their enthusiastic challenge.

Those third places were due to a mini-revival from Great Britain who found themselves well-adrift on home territory in a performance described as "dreadful" by manager Jim Lynch.

At one stage, the hosts were battling to stay even in third place on the night ahead of the Czech Republic, with an inspired Adrian Rymel re-passing Andersen to win Heat 11 - but Rymel then crashed out whilst taking the joker ride.

Britain did improve after the interval but a sole race win from Chris Harris in Heat 17 summed up their problems, although Harris was then involved in a four-lap tussle with Fredrik Lindgren two races later which ended with the pair dead-heating for second place.

Denmark therefore join Australia in the Final and the line-up for the Race-Off is Poland, Sweden, Great Britain and Russia - with Britain already confirming the inclusion of Edward Kennett and Tai Woffinden for that meeting.

Danish manager Jan Staechmann said: "Everyone was asking whether we wanted to go into the Race-Off and I said we're racers, we want to win, and the boys proved it - I was really proud of them.

"I think everyone expected Great Britain to do a lot better but the Swedes really gave us a fight, and I'm chuffed that we've gone straight to the Final.

"We'll be relaxing now until the practice and the hard work really starts then. The riders have it in them, they all want to win and as soon as they get the Danish flag on their chest they seem to rise to the occasion.

"Fingers crossed for Saturday night and hopefully a lot of Danes will be there to cheer us on."

FIM NORDICBET SPEEDWAY WORLD CUP ROUND 2

DENMARK 63:
Nicki Pedersen 14, Kenneth Bjerre 14, Bjarne Pedersen 13, Niels-
Kristian Iversen 12, Hans Andersen 10.

SWEDEN 50.5:
Jonas Davidsson 16, Fredrik Lindgren 11.5, Andreas Jonsson 9, Peter Ljung 7, Daniel Nermark 7.

GREAT BRITAIN 25.5:
Chris Harris 8.5, Lee Richardson 6, Olly Allen 5, Scott Nicholls 4, Simon Stead 2.

CZECH REPUBLIC 13:
Adrian Rymel 6, Lubos Tomicek 4, Filip Sitera 2, Matej Kus 1, Ales Dryml 0.