Crump closes in on championship lead

Jason Crump's quest to win back-to-back world speedway title is gathering real momentum, with the Australian finishing third in the Croatian GP to close Tomasz Gollob's lead to just 10pts with three rounds remaining.

Seasoned American star Greg Hancock, 40, claimed victory in Croatia after holding off a furious last-bend charge from Chris Harris, with Crump holding off Sweden's Freddie Lindgren in the four-lap final.

“It was an interesting event,” Crump said. “Practice was very good, we have some new engines so mechanically I am very happy with what we have.

“The event being rained out on Saturday night was a difficult situation. I prepared myself for racing in those conditions then the event was postponed 30 minutes before it was due to start.

“The next morning I jogged 4km around the circuit to wake myself up and be ready to race at midday.

“I was happy with my races, but even more importantly, my consistency has paid off. The gap in the championship has closed up and if I do things right I have the opportunity to be world champion again."

Gollob and Jaroslaw Hampel, this year's other championship contender, were both eliminated at the semi-final stage. Gollob and Hampel are now on 117 and 110pts respectively, with Crump on 107.

Dane Rune Holta leads the next block of riders on 82pts, but he's probably now too far back to challenge for the world championship.

Australia's second rider, Chris Holder, was eliminated in the first semi-final and is seventh in the championship on 73pts - a rookie season that has already seen him win his first GP in Cardiff.

Meanwhile, Hancock's struggles in the opening half of the season even prompted questions as to whether this would be his final year in the world championship. But the Swedish-based man was delighted to silence his doubters with his 11th SGP victory.

He said: "When you're not going well, you can start putting words in everyone's mouth.

"They try and ask you those questions you don't care to hear. But I have no plans for going anywhere other than up, up, up."

The final three rounds will be held in Denmark, Italy and Poland, concluding on October 9.

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS (AFTER EIGHT ROUNDS):
1 Tomasz Gollob 117, 2 Jaroslaw Hampel 110, 3 Jason Crump 107, 4 Rune Holta 82, 5 Kenneth Bjerre 81, 6 Greg Hancock 75, 7 Chris Holder 73, 8 Chris Harris 72, 9 Freddie Lindgren 65, 10 Hans Andersen 64, 11 Andreas Jonsson 61, 12 Nicki Pedersen 55, 13 Magnus Zetterstrom 52, 14 Tai Woffinden 37, 15 Emil Sayfutdinov 33, 16 Janusz Kolodziej 12, 17 Davey Watt 12, 18 Thomas H Jonasson 8, 19 Adrian Miedzinski 6, 20 Antonio Lindback 6, 21 Piotr Protasiewicz 5, 22 Jurica Pavlic 5, 23 Scott Nicholls 4, 24 Matej Kus 3, 25 Leon Madsen 3, 26 Ludvig Lindgren 2, 27 Nicolai Klindt 1

FIM VALVOLINE CROATIAN SGP POINTS: 1 Greg Hancock 22, 2 Chris Harris 21, 3 Jason Crump 17, 4 Fredrik Lindgren 11, 5 Tomasz Gollob 10, 6 Jaroslaw Hampel 8, 7 Chris Holder 7, 8 Rune Holta 6, 9 Kenneth Bjerre 6, 10 Tai Woffinden 6, 11 Davey Watt 6, 12 Andreas Jonsson 6, 13 Magnus Zetterstrom 6, 14 Jurica Pavlic 5, 15 Nicki Pedersen 4, 16 Hans Andersen 3, 17 Matija Duh 0, 18 Joszef Tabaka 0.