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NEWS
Ward fends off challenges in style
Fresh from a breakout performance in the 2011 World Cup, the 19-year-old has now started his world under 21 speedway defence in menacing formAustralian star Darcy Ward has won the opening round of the 2011 World Under 21 Championship, contested in Poole (UK) on Saturday, July 23.
The 19-year-old stepped up his bid for a record-breaking third straight junior title by topping the rostrum ahead of Pole Maciej Janowski and his British domestic league team-mate Dennis Andersson.
But all three riders finished on the same points (14), and they’ll take those with them into the next round at Holsted on August 28.
That could be a very big weekend for Ward, who has made no secret of the fact he wants the wildcard berth for world open round in Poland the day before.
“I’m 50/50 on it. I’d rather be 100 percent and go in there with confidence, so you probably won’t see me in the Grand Prix,” he said.
Ward went into the Poole meeting as hot favourite, and suffered his only defeat to Andersson in race 14 following an epic battle.
But the 19-year-old won some of his races by the length of the straight and he admits his local knowledge made all the difference.
He said: “The idea of a favourite sort of goes out of the window when everybody is practicing and does 20 laps before the meeting. Practice is a bit different to racing, though, and I know the racing lines.
“I think that showed, but in saying that, I hope the result will be the same in Holsted. I feel good and I dropped one point, so I can’t complain. It was just a point so roll on the next round.
“Poole is my home track, I had to take advantage of it and I feel I did. I felt faster than Dennis when I was second, but he’s fast around Poole too.
“I’ll have to make the most of practice at the next three rounds and make some starts.
“I was trapping on Sunday and maybe the world under 21s makes me gate a bit better. In the league matches I’m just chilling at the start.”
WORLD UNDER-21 FINAL ROUND ONE SCORES
1 Darcy Ward 14+3, 2 Maciej Janowski 14+2, 3 Dennis Andersson 14+R, 4 Piotr Pawlicki 12, 5= Patryk Dudek 9, Przemyslaw Pawlicki 9, 7= Joe Haines 8, Martin Vaculik 8, Michael Jepsen Jensen 8, 10 Dino Kovacic 6, 11 Steven Worrall 4, 12= Oskar Fajfer 3, Paul Starke 3, Bartosz Zmarzlik 3, 15 Jerran Hart 2, Simon Gustafsson 2, 17= Aleksandr Loktaev 0, Ashley Morris 0.
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Written byBikesales Staff
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