Australia names crack Speedway World Cup squad
The two Speedway Grand Prix stars will be joined by a plethora of highly ranked compatriotsAustralia has named its 10-rider squad for the 2017 Speedway World Cup, which will be spearheaded by Speedway Grand Prix (SGP) stars Jason Doyle and Chris Holder. Former SGP rider Troy Batchelor has also been selected, along with world under 21 champion Max Fricke and reigning national champion Sam Masters.
Josh Grajczonek, Jack Holder, Brady Kurtz, Nick Morris and Rohan Tungate complete the squad, which will again be managed by long-time chief Mark Lemon.
Australia will compete in the opening qualifying event at King's Lynn in England on July 1 against Great Britain, the Czech Republic and the USA.
Event two on July 4 will feature Sweden, Denmark, Russia and a qualifier, with the winner of both of those events going straight through to the Polish-hosted final on July 8. Poland, the defending SWC champion, has already been seeded straight through to the final.
Meanwhile, second and third placegetters from the two qualifiers will go through to a Race off on July 7, with the winner of that progressing to the final.
Australia is a two-time SWC champion in 2001-2002, and since then has finished in the top three seven times, including four times in second place.
The other winners have been world speedway powerhouses Poland (seven times), Denmark (four) and Sweden (three).
2017 Speedway World Cup squads
- Great Britain: Craig Cook, Josh Bates, Adam Ellis, Chris Harris, Kyle Howarth, Danny King, Robert Lambert, Scott Nicholls, Richie Worrall, Steven Worrall. Team Manager: Alun Rossiter.
- Australia: Troy Batchelor, Jason Doyle, Max Fricke, Josh Grajczonek, Chris Holder, Jack Holder, Brady Kurtz, Sam Masters, Nick Morris, Rohan Tungate. Team Manager: Mark Lemon.
- Czech Republic: Vaclav Milik, Josef Franc, Matej Kus, Eduard Krcmar, Hynek Stichauer, Tomas Suchanek, Zdenek Holub, Ondrej Smetana, Patrik Mikel. Team Manager: Milan Spinka.
- USA: Ricky Wells, Luke Becker, Giovanni Manzares, Broc Nicol, Dillon Ruml, Aaron Fox, Scott Campos. Team Manager: Lance King.
- Sweden: Fredrik Lindgren, Andreas Jonsson, Antonio Lindback, Peter Ljung, Jacob Thorssell, Linus Sundstrom, Kim Nilsson, Timo Lahti, Joel Kling, Kenny Wennerstam. Team Manager: Morgan Andersson.
- Denmark: Niels-Kristian Iversen, Kenneth Bjerre, Michael Jepsen Jensen, Leon Madsen, Mikkel Michelsen, Peter Kildemand, Hans Andersen, Anders Thomsen, Patrick Hansen, Frederik Jakobsen. Team Manager: Hans Nielsen.
- Russia: Andrei Kudriashov, Viktor Kulakov, Vadim Tarasenko, Renat Gafurov, Emil Sayfutdinov, Sergei Logachev, Grigorii Laguta, Vladimir Borodulin, Artem Laguta, Gleb Chugunov. Team Manager: Andrei Savin.
- Poland: Patryk Dudek, Maksym Drabik, Jaroslaw Hampel, Maciej Janowski, Janusz Kolodziej, Piotr Pawlicki, Przemyslaw Pawlicki, Piotr Protasiewicz, Bartosz Smektala, Bartosz Zmarzlik. Team Manager: Marek Cieslak
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