Speedway World Cup
Speedway World Cup: Australia finishes third at World Cup.
By Admin
Jul 21, 2007, 23:54

Australia has ended its 2007 FIM Speedway World Cup campaign taking third place overall, after a pulsating final at Leszno, Poland.

Despite being considered a red hot chance heading into the final, the Aussies had a forgettable night on the track, as Poland took the honours from Denmark, with Great Britain finishing in fourth.

After four races, Australia had only managed to rack up five points, with Poland winning all four and the Danes holding their own.

It wasn’t until the fifth race through Dave Watt that the green and gold took all three race points, and with Chris Holder and Leigh Adams claiming seconds in the next two races the Aussies were back in the mix.

But by heat nine, Australia was seven points behind leaders Poland, and in a clever move, decided to use its Joker with Jason Crump starting from the inside gate.

The move backfired however, when Crump touched the starting tape and was disqualified from the heat – it was later found out that a part blew in his engine causing his bike to jump forward.

From that point on the Australians were never in with a real shot, and the quest for the title came down to the last race where Polish captain Tomasz Gollob rode to victory in front of an adoring 25,000 home crowd.

For the Aussies, Crump rode the best on the night earning nine points, while Ryan Sullivan claimed seven, and Leigh Adams, in an uncharacteristic performance, finished with five.

Rory Shlein was given two rides after Holder sat out his final couple of races due to a headache, and the team did enough to get themselves a bronze medal and a podium finish.

Despite the disappointing result, the experience gained by the likes of Holder, Schlein and Watt holds Australia in good stead to make a real assault on the title in the coming years.

POLAND 55:
Kasprzak 14, Hampel 13, Gollob 12, Holta, 12, Walasek 4

DENMARK 52:
N Pederson 12, B Pederson 11, Andersen 10, Bjerre 10, Iversen 9

AUSTRALIA 29:
Crump 9, Sullivan 7, Adams 5, Watt 4, Holder 3, Schlein 1

ENGLAND 15:
Nicholls 7, Richardson 4, Harris 3, Stead 1, Kennett 0, Allen 0