Speedway World Cup in Riga: After a slow start, the Danes triumphed

After the first heat of the second semi-final at the Speedway World Cup in the Latvian capital, Riga, the favourites, Denmark, found themselves bottom of the table with just three points, having only managed to score through Leon Madsen’s heat victory. Mikkel Michelsen, Anders Thomsen and Michael Jepsen Jensen had all failed to score, and team manager Nicki Pedersen took action. In the second heat, Pedersen brought on reserve rider Frederik Jakobsen in place of Anders Thomsen. The move paid off immediately, as the Danes won each of their four heats and impressively closed the gap on the leading Swedes.

In the ninth heat, Germany’s northern neighbours took the lead and never relinquished it, although things got tight again after heat 13. Frederik Jakobsen, who had already received a warning, was excluded from that heat after jumping the start. Kim Nilsson won and took full advantage of Jakobsen’s mistake, bringing the Swedes back to within a single point of the leading Danes. Two heats later, however, Leon Madsen and Michael Jepsen Jensen sealed the deal: after Timo Lahti crashed into the starting barrier and Fredrik Lindgren failed to score in the 16th heat, the score stood at 33–24 in favour of the Danes with four heats remaining.

Sweden did manage to close the gap on the leaders slightly in the final heat, but Anders Thomsen, who took to the track for the second time that evening in the 19th heat, sealed the victory for the Danes with his win. They will now complete the line-up for the final in Warsaw at the end of August, where they will face the seeded teams from Poland and Australia, as well as Great Britain, the winners at Landshut.

Speedway World Cup results, Semi-final 2, Riga/LV:

Die siegreichen Dänen komplettieren das Finale in Warschau

Foto: jarek pabijan