CYCLE SPEEDWAY: FREE scoring Coventry racer Myke Grimes couldn’t quite help Team GB claim the gold medal at the World Cup Final, despite top scoring for his country.
Grimes dropped just three points in the World Cup Final, hosted at Salisbury Cycle Speedway in Adelaide, Australia.
The final was one of the most dramatic ever witnessed, with host nation Australia claiming the gold medal on the final lap of the final race.
England, Wales, and Australia came through the qualifying round to join 2015 champions Poland in the final.
Grimes got England off to a flying start with a win from his opening ride as a tactical substitute.
Australia edged ahead, using their block of races from grid two to lead England and Poland by two points.
The host nation pulled further clear in the next block of four races, picking up two wins from the grid one position.
Grimes claimed his third win of the day when closing out Aussie ace Joel Chadwick in heat 13.
Poland won heat 17 ahead of Team Australia, who suffered a severe setback in the following race when Ty Geertsen suffered a gate exlusion.
England led by one point, ahead of both Poland and Australia with two heats remaining.
England’s Josh Brooke was unable to get around the Polish powerhouse Pawel Cegielski and ran a last in the penultimate race, while Australian Shane Bentley raced to victory with Wales’ Jack Harrold finishing second.
Going in to the final match, three of the four teams could win the title. Australia led by two on 52, Poland and England 50 each.
England had the favoured grid one and lined up with captain Paul Heard, Poland’s Dawid Bas took two and Australia’s Cody Chadwick on three.
Heard chased Bas for three laps until diving in on Bas in an attempt to snatch victory, but the Polish star did enough to stay in front and Heard subsequently came to grief.
This allowed Chadwick into second and win the title for Australia in dramatic fashion.
<b><i>RESULT: </i></b>
ENGLAND 51
Chris Timms 3, Josh Brooke 9, Zac Payne 9, Paul Heard 13, Myke Grimes 17
WALES 35
Mark Carmichael 3, Mark Winwood 5, Dean Hook 6, Jack Harrold 11, Ben Mould 10
AUSTRALIA 55
Daniel Robb 8, Shane Bentley 11, Cody Chadwick 11, Ty Geertsen 10, Joel Chadwick 16
POLAND 54
Kamil Bielica 7, Lukas Nowacki 13, Pawel Cegielski 7, Bartek Grabowski 18, Dawid Bas 9.
Picture: Cycle Speedway Australia.
