Ward third in Cardiff

Double world champion Greg Hancock completing a glorious trio of victories at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff during the British leg of the 2014 Speedway World Championship on Saturday, July 12.

The Californian held firm under immense pressure from home hero Tai Woffinden and Aussie star Darcy Ward to seal a popular win in front of a raucous crowd, in the process equalling Jason Crump’s record haul of three gold medals in the Welsh capital.

However Hancock, who also triumphed in 2004 and 2011 in Cardiff, lost his world championship lead to defending champ Woffinden, who is three points clear at the top going into the championship’s month-long break for the 2014 Speedway World Cup.

But the 43-year-old was elated to get his hands on a gold medal in what was his sixth final appearance in seven rounds. He said: “It’s huge. I’ve wanted to win one so badly. When you get to the final, all you want to do is win. I haven’t been taking the points in the heats – going away with 12 points in Prague for second and then 11 for third in Copenhagen is tough.

“I only had 11 going into the final tonight and I was thinking ‘man, I want more points!’ The win gave me three extra and it feels so much better. I can’t say enough about how unbelievable it is to win in Cardiff in front of these fans. It’s my all-time favourite place.”

Hancock was delighted to join Crump on three Millennium Stadium successes. He said: “That’s cool. I never set out to break records, but it’s fun to have them and sit on them for a while. “It was even better to have Crumpy hand over the trophy. That felt really, really special.”

Meanwhile, Ward bagged 15 points to edge Niels-Kristian Iversen out of third place in the world championship on his Cardiff debut. The Queenslander said: “It was really good. I’ve been here many times to watch and I was very thankful to be a part of it. I’ll take third any day – that’s very good.

“From my point of view, it was good to get some points, but it was hard to see Greg and Tai up taking so many at the front. They’re making my life hard trying to catch them.

“I need to peg back some points gradually, but they keep doing what I’m doing, so it’s hard.”

Ward’s countryman Troy Batchelor was well back in 15th spot, while Chris Holder was absent with injury.

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS: 1 Tai Woffinden 90, 2 Greg Hancock 87, 3 Darcy Ward 75, 4 Niels-Kristian Iversen 74, 5 Nicki Pedersen 68, 6 Matej Zagar 66, 7 Jaroslaw Hampel 59, 8 Krzysztof Kasprzak 59, 9 Fredrik Lindgren 57, 10 Chris Holder 55, 11 Martin Smolinski 53, 12 Andreas Jonsson 49, 13 Troy Batchelor 49, 14 Kenneth Bjerre 39, 15 Chris Harris 36, 16 Michael Jepsen Jensen 17, 17 Peter Kildemand 15, 18 Peter Ljung 7, 19 Adrian Miedzinski 5, 20 Joonas Kylmakorpi 5, 21 Kauko Nieminen 4, 22 Jason Bunyan 2, 23 Vaclav Milik 2, 24 Craig Cook 2.

MITAS BRITISH SGP SCORES: 1 Greg Hancock 14, 2 Tai Woffinden 18, 3 Darcy Ward 15, 4 Krzysztof Kasprzak 10, 5 Niels-Kristian Iversen 12, 6 Fredrik Lindgren 10, 7 Michael Jepsen Jensen 9, 8 Martin Smolinski 8, 9 Andreas Jonsson 8, 10 Nicki Pedersen 8, 11 Chris Harris 6, 12 Matej Zagar 6, 13 Jaroslaw Hampel 5, 14 Kenneth Bjerre 4, 15 Troy Batchelor 3, 16 Craig Cook 2, 17 Ben Barker DNR, 18 Jason Garrity DNR.