Holta defeats Crump in Sweden

Just weeks after undergoing surgery on his injured arm, Australian Jason Crump finished a fighting second at the Scandinavian Speedway Grand Prix in Malilla, Sweden on August 14.

Crump finished behind Rune Holta in the final, with championship leader Tomasz Gollob third ahead of local rider Freddie Lindgren.

Crump's compatriot, the last-start winner Chris Holder, failed to make the semi-finals.

"I had a pretty good day and most importantly I felt quite comfortable," Crump stated.

"Having only had the operation three weeks ago I was a little unsure of how strong I would be so it was very pleasing to come away scoring points in all but one race.

"In the final Rune checked out and I battled with Tomasz for second throughout the race before finally pulling away from him on the last lap.

Crump remains in third position, but has closed the gap on second-placed Jaroslaw Hampel to 12ptsd (90 to 102). Gollob leads on 107pts with fur rounds still remaining.

Holta considered retiring from the championship after last season, after becoming frustrated at years of just scraping into the top eight.

But his 20pt haul at the G&B Arena has fired him up to fourth on 76pts.

The 36-year-old said: "My goal has always been a medal. But I'll take it one meeting at a time. If I keep up the same form as I produced last year, it will be good.

"Top three would be a fantastic result for me. It looks good now. It's all about experience and getting more experience.

"Maybe I've got there a little bit late because I haven't done the British league like the rest of the guys. But now I'm starting to get the meetings I need to win something.

"I'm getting really focused and I know how to set up the bikes. I'm taking points at different tracks and it's all coming to me now."

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS (AFTER SIX ROUNDS): 1 Tomasz Gollob 107, 2 Jaroslaw Hampel 102, 3 Jason Crump 90, 4 Rune Holta 76, 5 Kenneth Bjerre 75, 6 Chris Holder 66, 7 Hans Andersen 61, 8 Andreas Jonsson 55, 9 Fredrik Lindgren 54, 10 Greg Hancock 53, 11 Nicki Pedersen 51, 12 Chris Harris 51, 13 Magnus Zetterstrom 46, 14 Emil Sayfutdinov 33, 15 Tai Woffinden 31, 16 Janusz Kolodziej 12, 17 Thomas H Jonasson 8, 18 Davey Watt 6, 19 Adrian Miedzinski 6, 20 Antonio Lindback, 21 Piotr Protasiewicz 5, 22 Scott Nicholls 4, 23 Matej Kus 3, 24 Leon Madsen 3, 25 Ludvig Lindgren 2, 26 Nicolai Klindt 1, 27 Linus Sundstrom 1.

FIM SCANDINAVIAN SGP POINTS: 1 Rune Holta 20, 2 Jason Crump 15, 3 Tomasz Gollob 17, 4 Fredrik Lindgren 11, 5 Greg Hancock 12, 6 Jaroslaw Hampel 10, 7 Kenneth Bjerre 9, 8 Chris Harris 9, 9 Thomas H Jonasson 8, 10 Andreas Jonsson 7, 11 Chris Holder 6, 12 Emil Sayfutdinov 6, 13 Hans Andersen 5, 14 Magnus Zetterstrom 3, 15 Tai Woffinden 3, 16 Ludvig Lindgren 2, 17 Linus Sundstrom 1, 18 Nicki Pedersen 0.