Ward wins consecutive world titles

Australian tearaway Darcy Ward became only the second rider in history to retain the World Under 21 Speedway Championship when it concluded in the Czech Republic last Saturday.

The 18-year-old defeated Polish hotshot Maciej Janowski and Latvian star Maks Bogdanovs in a run-off for the gold. This was after the trio were locked on 30 points after three rounds.

Despite being beaten by the pair in his heat races, Ward showed incredible bottle to roar from the start and hold off Janowski for four laps, while Bogdanovs was left with bronze.

Only current grand prix star Emil Sayfutdinov, who won the title in 2007 and 2008, had claimed two world under 21 crowns prior to Darcy’s heroics in the Czech Republic.

And Ward is now only the third Australian to win successive world titles in any discipline after Stefan Merriman (enduro, 2003-2004) and Mick Doohan (500GP, 1994-1998).

Ward could now go on to achieve a record third victory next year.

But whether or not he completes a hat-trick, the Queenslander was over the moon to write his name in the history books and clinch No.2.

“What can I say? Doing it for a second time is unbelievable and I think it’s better than the first. I’m a little bit speechless,” said Ward. “I came into the meeting going for second. Maks is so fast and I didn’t really come into it thinking too much. That was good for me.

“I just went out there and raced, set my bike up for the starts and felt I was really making them. I only missed two starts off gate four and made one in the run-off. I don’t know what to say really.”

FINAL WORLD UNDER-21 CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS:
1 Darcy Ward 30+3, 2 Maciej Janowski 30+2, 3 Maks Bogdanovs 30+1, 4 Patrick Hougaard 27, 5 Martin Vaculik 26, 6 Jurica Pavlic 24, 7 Dennis Andersson 21, 8 Rene Bach 20, 9 Artem Laguta 18, 10 Kevin Wolbert 18, 11 Vadim Tarasenko 16, 12 Patryk Dudek 15, 13 Matej Kus 14, 14 Frank Facher 7, 15 Vaclav Milik 4, 16 Przemyslaw Pawlicki 3, 17 Vjaceslavs Gieruckis 3, 18 Artur Mroczka 2, 19 Jan Holub 1, 20 Jevgenijs Karavackis 1, 21 Damian Sperz 1.

WORLD UNDER-21 FINAL ROUND THREE RESULTS:
Maciej Janowski (3-3-2-3-3) 14, Darcy Ward (3-3-2-2-3) 13, Martin Vaculik (3-2-3-1-3) 12, Kevin Wolbert (0-3-3-1-3) 10, Jurica Pavlic (2-0-3-3-2) 10, Dennis Andersson (3-1-1-3-2) 10, Maks Bogdanovs (2-2-3-1-1) 9, Patryk Dudek (2-3-1-2-0) 8, Patrick Hougaard (0-2-2-2-2) 8, Rene Bach (1-R-1-3-1) 6, Matej Kus (2-1-0-0-2) 5, Vadim Tarasenko (1-1-R-2-1) 5, Frank Facher (0-2-0-1-1) 4, Vaclav Milik (1-1-2-0-0) 4, Jan Holub (0-0-1-0-M) 1, Artem Laguta (1-F) 1, Roman Cejka (0-0) 0, Rene Vidner (0-0) 0.