Batchelor fourth in SGP

Australia's Troy Batchelor has finished fourth in round 10 of the 2014 Speedway World Championship in Vojens, Denmark, with Sweden's Andeas Jonsson topping the rostrum ahead of wildcard Peter Kildemand and Krzysztof Kasprzak.

Batchelor's compatriot Chris Holder was eliminated from proceedings in the opening semi-final. The third Aussie in the series, Darcy Ward, is still under suspension after his positive alcohol test two rounds ago.

Jonsson has endured a rotten run in the world championship and has been without a victory since finishing second overall in 2011 and winning SGP rounds in Terenzano, Torun and Gorican. He said: “This means a lot because it makes me angry when I know I've got the ability to ride well. When I'm not going well, it just feels terrible. I still feel I haven't showed the best of myself yet.

“It has been a disaster. It has been a really, really tough couple of years. It has been really hard for me and I've struggled with pretty much everything.

"I haven't felt comfortable and I haven't felt I have competitive bikes sometimes. I haven't felt I can make starts. When it's not going well, it just sticks in your head. You change too much and in the end you don't know what you are doing.

“Small things make the difference between being at the top and the bottom. If you're not there and you don't know what to change to get to the top position, the confidence goes down after a while.

“I haven't forgotten how to ride speedway or make starts. I proved that tonight. It's difficult. A couple of injuries can change a lot or a few bad meetings – then the confidence can go down. Suddenly then it's a different story and it's a long way back.

“It feels like all the goals I had for this season have just run away from me. It's too late to get going now, but I'm happy I am going well. I just want to finish this season as well as I can, try to make good plans for the next one and hopefully not make too many mistakes.”

Silver medallist Kildemand was delighted to reach his second final in as many SGP appearances this year in front of a packed house at the legendary Vojens.

Another podium finish in the GP Challenge at Italian circuit Lonigo next Saturday would see him become a full-time world championship rider for 2015.

World champion Tai Woffinden raced through the pain of a broken left hand to score a handy 7pts, while championship leader Greg Hancock missed his first race since the series went multi-round in 1995, but still leads the standings by 7pts.

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS: 1 Greg Hancock 112, 2 Tai Woffinden 105, 3 Krzysztof Kasprzak 104, 4 Nicki Pedersen 101, 5 Matej Zagar 97, 6 Niels-Kristian Iversen 87, 7 Chris Holder 80, 8 Troy Batchelor 79, 9 Fredrik Lindgren 78, 10 Darcy Ward 75, 11 Andreas Jonsson 74, 12 Kenneth Bjerre 70, 13 Martin Smolinski 70, 14 Jaroslaw Hampel 66, 15 Chris Harris 40, 16 Michael Jepsen Jensen 38, 17 Peter Kildemand 33, 18 Bartosz Zmarzlik 17, 19 Kasts Puodzuks 10, 20 Peter Ljung 7, 21 Mikkel Bech Jensen 7, 22 Adrian Miedzinski 5, 23 Joonas Kylmakorpi 5, 24 Kauko Nieminen 4, 25 Andzejs Lebedevs 3, 26 Jason Bunyan 2, 27 Vaclav Milik 2, 28 Craig Cook 2, 29 Adrian Cyfer 2, 30 Lukasz Kaczmarek 2, 31 Lasse Bjerre 1.

VOJENS SCORERS: 1 Andreas Jonsson 15, 2 Peter Kildemand 18, 3 Krzysztof Kasprzak 12, 4 Troy Batchelor 13, 5 Kenneth Bjerre 10, 6 Chris Holder 10, 7 Fredrik Lindgren 9, 8 Nicki Pedersen 8, 9 Michael Jepsen Jensen 7, 10 Tai Woffinden 7, 11 Mikkel Bech Jensen 7, 12 Matej Zagar 6, 13 Martin Smolinski 6, 14 Chris Harris 5, 15 Jaroslaw Hampel 3, 16 Lasse Bjerre 1, 17 Nicolaj Busk Jakobsen 0.