The four qualifying semifinals of Pentecost were particularly uplifting for Danish speedway. Niels Kr. Iversen, Kenneth Bjerre, Anders Thomsen and Mikkel Michelsen advanced to this year's Grand Prix Challenge in Croatia. On Saturday, August 24, three seats will be run for the 2020 World Series.
By Ib Søby
Denmark becomes clearly the strongest nation in the Croatian Gorican in August. It is also the same course, where the Danish gross national team in March had a week training session.
- Yes we had just chosen Gorican for the spring training session, hoping for a bonus for our riders in August, says a happy coach Hans Nielsen.
- It is impressive that Anders Thomsen and Mikkel Michelsen also made it through, because it tells us that our next generation is really entering the world elite, says Hans Nielsen.
In these weeks when the audience is flowing into the Danish cinemas to watch the documentary "The Fall of the Kings", a shift in international speedway is being glimpsed, where Denmark seems to be returning as a superpower.
While there is joy in the national coach team, which besides Hans Nielsen, consists of Erik Gundersen and Henrik Møller, it must be noted in the Polish Motor Union - PZM - that for the first time since 1996, there are no Polish drivers in the qualifying final.
- Yes, the Poles have four riders in the current World Cup series, but of course it is a surprise that the big speedway nation flopped in the qualification system. But it also says something about how difficult it is to break through in modern speedway, Hans Nielsen estimates.
In addition to the great result in the Pentecost World Cup qualification, Denmark also has four riders in this year's individual U21 World Cup series, which starts in Polish Lublin on June 22. The four are Frederik Jakobsen, Patrick Hansen, Jonas Jeppesen and Tim Sørensen, who also form the tribe under U21 national team.
The Grandprix Challenge 2019 consists of 16 riders from 10 nations:
Craig Cook, England, Niels Kristian Iversen, Denmark, Pontus Aspgren, Sweden, Robert Lambert, England, Anders Thomsen, Denmark, Martin Vaculik, Slovakia, Peter Ljung, Sweden, Matej Zagar, Slovenia, David Bellego, France, Chris Harris, England , Mikkel Michelsen, Denmark, Max Fricke, Australia, Martin Smolinski, Germany, Aleksandr ktoktajew, Ukraine, Kenneth Bjerre, Denmark and Jurica Pavlic, Croatia –wild card.