British Dismay as Australia Make It To World Cup Final

Australia managed to pick themselves up from their recent losses by winning the race-off and putting themselves in to the 2013 Speedway World Cup. In a meeting that Great Britain were expected to do well in and maybe even win, they finished fourth with a comical ending to their tournament. Latvia continued their surprising performance by keeping pace with the rest and finishing third behind a very competitive USA side.

USA (Ricky Wells, Gino Manzares, Ryan Fisher & Greg Hancock), Latvia (Kasts Puodzuks, Maksim Bogdanovs, Vjaceslavs Giruckis & Andzejs Lebedevs) and Australia (Jason Doyle, Troy Batchelor, Cameron Woodward & Darcy Ward) were all unchanged from their first meetings. Britain had decided to change Ed Kennett and Craig Cook for Lewis Bridger and Ben Barker to join Tai Woffinden and Chris Harris.

It was tight meeting throughout although Britain got off to the worst start with Barker finishing fourth before Harris packed up in heat two. Hancock and Fisher made it two wins in two for the Americans before Wells added a seventh point from four heats. A second from Woodward in heat three followed by a win for Ward also put Australia on seven. Two seconds and a third in the opening three heats put Latvia on five points and remained on that after Giruckis finished fourth in the fourth heat. Britain were level on five after Woffinden won heat three following a restart before Bridger managed a second place.

Woffinden then managed to win the fifth heat to go level with Australia whilst second for Hancock placed the Americans a point ahead. But a fourth from Bridger allowed Latvia to level after Puodzuks won the sixth heat, leaving Australia and USA tied on ten points. Doyle managed to win heat seven to give Australia the lead, which they would hold on to despite finishing fourth in heat eight after Batchelor had taken Lebedevs out on the final corner. A win for Harris put Britain and USA a point behind Australia on 12 with Latvia fourth on 11.

USA took the lead once again in heat nine with Hancock winning it. A win for Giruckis in heat ten allowed Latvia to go level with Britain and point behind Australia with USA still in front. But Ward would take heat-11 to put the Aussies in front and that was enhanced when Woodward finished second in heat-12. They were on 20-points with Latvia now second on 18 after Bogdanovs won heat-12. USA and Britain were locked together on 17.

Things got worse for Britain when Barker finished fourth in heat-13. Ward won it and this meant Australia were now six points ahead. Britain wasted no time in using their joker but they decided to sub Harris for Woffinden with Hancock going off the inside when it may have been wise to wait a little bit. It was no surprise to see Hancock win the heat with Woffinden picking up four points for second. But that good work was overturned when Bridger lost control of his bike and crashed out, forcing a restart. Batchelor won it for Australia and Britain were again six points behind. Manzares looked to deliberately not complete heat-15 with alleged bike problems. But this meant America could now use their joker and, surprise surprise, Hancock took it in the following heat. Hancock managed to win the heat and this put them level with Australia on 27-points after 16-heats. Second place for Woffinden was enough to put them level with Latvia on 23-points.

There were more farcical tactics in heat-17 as Barker decided to deliberately drop from second to third on the line. This was so Britain would be six points behind Australia and be allowed to use a tactical substitute. It was too little too late and Harris could only finish second in heat-18. This left Australia three points ahead in the meeting and a second from Batchelor in heat-19 sealed their victory. They were then able to round the night off with a victory from Ward with Woffinden second. Australia won the meeting with 35-points. USA finished second with 31 with Britain last on 28, a point behind Latvia.