Last night King's Lynn in Norfolk witnessed the second tie of the Speedway World Cup. The host nation, Great Britain, have never won a World Cup meeting but stood a great chance in this one. Their team consisted of both youth and experience (something a certain Capello should take note of) with Nicholls and Harris in the World Championships along with young Tai Woffinden who has also been competing in this year's World Championships. The other two riders were the vastly experienced Lee Richardson and the newcomer Simon Stead. Sweden were also considered contenders for first but they were without their main rider, Andreas Jonsson due to injury. However they still had Freddie Lindgren and Magnus 'Zorro' Zetterstrom who are both in the World Championships. Antonio Lindback has also had World Championship experience whereas Davidsson and Nermark are relatively new to the senior circuit.
Australia were also considered favourites but they were severely hampered without arguably the best rider in Speedway, Jason Crump. They still had Chris Holder and Davey Watt from the World Championships but also had Batchelor, Schlein and Ward who are very youthful. The underdogs of the tie were Finland whose only notable riders were Joonas Kylmakorpi and captain Niemienen but neither are in the World Championships this year. Unless you follow Speedway religiously (which I don't) then you may recognise Lahti who rides in the Premier League which is the second tier of British Speedway behind the Elite League. The other two riders were Juha Hautamaki and Aarnio.
There was drama from the start as the first heat had to be restarted twice due to crashes which meant only two riders actually competed in the first heat. Heat seven followed the same pattern as the result was taking shape with Finland lagging at the back and Sweden looking set for third. All that was left to sort out was the battle for the win between Australia and Great Britain. It was a very tight contest and the lead kept swinging from one side to the next, eventually after the 25 heats were complete it was great Britain who would make a little piece of history with 51 points. Australia finished just three points behind on 48 and will be in the race-off on Thursday along with Sweden who grabbed third with 40 points. Finland finished miles behind on 14 but made a better showing than Czech Republic. Leaving Denmark, Russia, Australia and Sweden to fight for the final two places in the final in Thursday's race-off.
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