Speedway Under-21 World Championship

Speedway Under-21 World Championship
Sport	motorcycle speedway
Founded	1977
Most recent; champion(s)	Wiktor Przyjemski
Most titles	2 titles: ; Darcy Ward ; Emil Sayfutdinov ; Maksym Drabik; Mateusz Cierniak

The Speedway Under-21 World Championship is an annual speedway event held each year organized by the International Motorcycling Federation (FIM) since 1977.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5]

As of 2022, the title was awarded to the winner of the SGP2 category at the FIM Speedway World Championship.^[6]

History

Between 1977 and 1987 the Championship was the called Individual Speedway Junior European Championship (European Speedway Under 21 Championship), open only to European riders. In 1979, the Championship allowed riders from other continents to compete, but was renamed to the Speedway World Under 21 Championship in 1988.^[7] A new competition was named Individual Speedway Junior European Championship was founded by the European Motorcycle Union (UEM) in 1998, only open to European competitors.

Originally it was called the European Under-21 Championship (from 1977-1987) but changed its name in 1988 when it was made open to all nations.^[8]^[9] To confuse matters a new European Individual Speedway Junior Championship was created in 1998 by the European Motorcycle Union (UEM) but this is not linked to former European Under-21 Championship.

Emil Sayfutdinov (2007 and 2008) was the first ever double world champion. He has since been joined by Darcy Ward (2009 and 2010), Maksym Drabik (2017 and 2019) and Mateusz Cierniak (2022 and 2023).

Age limits

The minimum age of a rider to compete is 16 years of age (starting on the date of the rider's birthday). The maximum age is 21 years of age (finishing at the end of the year in which the rider celebrates his 21st birthday).

Past winners

European Championship (1977-1987)

Year	Venue	Winners	Runner-up	3rd place
1977	Vojens	Alf Busk (9 pts)	Joe Owen (8 pts)	Les Collins (7 pts)
1978	Lonigo	Finn Rune Jensen (13 pts)	Kevin Jolly (12+3 pts)	Neil Middleditch (12+2 pts)
1979	Leningrad	Ron Preston (13 pts)	Airat Faizulin (12 pts)	Ari Koponen (11+3 pts)
1980	Pocking	Tommy Knudsen (14 pts)	Tony Briggs (12 pts)	Dennis Sigalos (11+3 pts)
1981	Slaný	Shawn Moran (15 pts)	Antonín Kasper Jr. (14 pts)	Jiří Hnidak (13 pts)
1982	Pocking	Antonín Kasper Jr. (14 pts)	Mark Courtney (12+3 pts)	Peter Ravn (12+2 pts)
1983	Lonigo	Steve Baker (13 pts)	David Bargh (12 pts)	Marvyn Cox (11 pts)
1984	King's Lynn	Marvyn Cox (12 pts)	Neil Evitts (11+3 pts)	Steve Lucero (11+2 pts)
1985	Abensberg	Per Jonsson (15 pts)	Jimmy Nilsen (13 pts)	Ole Hansen (11+3pts)
1986	Rivne	Igor Marko (13 pts)	Tony Olsson (12 pts)	Brian Karger (11 pts)
1987	Zielona Góra	Gary Havelock (13 pts)	Piotr Świst (12+3 pts)	Sean Wilson (12+2 pts)

World Championship (since 1988)

One-day final (1988–2009)

Year	Venue	Winners	Runner-up	3rd place
1988	Slaný	Peter Nahlin (14 pts)	Henrik Gustafsson (11+3 pts)	Brian Karger (11+2 pts)
1989	Lonigo	Gert Handberg (13+3 pts)	Chris Louis (13+2 pts)	Niklas Karlsson (12 pts)
1990	Lviv	Chris Louis (14 pts)	Rene Aas (13 pts)	Tony Rickardsson (10+3 pts)
1991	Coventry	Brian Andersen (14+3 pts)	Morten Andersen (14+2 pts)	Jason Lyons (11 pts)
1992	Pfaffenhofen an der Ilm	Leigh Adams (14+3 pts)	Mark Loram (14+2 pts)	Joe Screen (13 pts)
1993	Pardubice	Joe Screen (14+3 pts)	Mikael Karlsson (14+2 pts)	Rune Holta (10+3 pts)
1994	Elgane	Mikael Karlsson (14+3 pts)	Rune Holta (14+2 pts)	Jason Crump (12+3 pts)
1995	Tampere	Jason Crump (13+3 pts)	Daniel Andersson (13+F pts)	Ryan Sullivan (12+3 pts)
1996	Olching	Piotr Protasiewicz (15 pts)	Ryan Sullivan (11+3 pts)	Jesper B. Jensen (11+2 pts)
1997	Mšeno	Jesper B. Jensen (14 pts)	Rafał Dobrucki (11+3 pts)	Scott Nicholls (11+2 pts)
1998	Piła	Robert Dados (14+3 pts)	Krzysztof Jabłoński (14+2 pts)	Matej Ferjan (12 pts)
1999	Vojens	Lee Richardson (13 pts)	Aleš Dryml, Jr. (11 pts)	Nigel Sadler (10+3+2 pts)
2000	Gorzów Wlkp.	Andreas Jonsson (14 pts)	Krzysztof Cegielski (11+3 pts)	Jarosław Hampel (11+2 pts)
2001	Peterborough	Dawid Kujawa (12 pts)	Lukáš Dryml (11 pts)	Rafał Okoniewski (10+3 pts)
2002	Slaný	Lukáš Dryml (14+3 pts)	Krzysztof Kasprzak (14+2 pts)	David Howe (12 pts)
2003	Kumla	Jarosław Hampel (14 pts)	Chris Harris (13 pts)	Rafał Szombierski (11+3 pts)
2004	Wrocław	Robert Miśkowiak (12 pts +2 +2)	Kenneth Bjerre (8 pts +3 +2)	Matej Žagar (8 pts +2 +1)
2005	Wiener Neustadt	Krzysztof Kasprzak (8 pts)	Tomáš Suchánek (8 pts)	Fredrik Lindgren (7 pts)
2006	Terenzano	Karol Ząbik (13 pts +3)	Antonio Lindbäck (12 pts +2)	Christian Hefenbrock (12 pts +1)
2007	Ostrów Wlkp.	Emil Sayfutdinov (15 pts)	Chris Holder (14 pts)	Paweł Hlib (12 pts)
2008	Pardubice	Emil Sayfutdinov (14 pts)	Chris Holder (12+3 pts)	Jurica Pavlic (12+2 pts)
2009	Goričan	Darcy Ward (13 pts)	Jurica Pavlic (12+3 pts)	Patrick Hougaard (12+2 pts)

Final series (since 2010–2021)

Year	Venue	Winners	Runner-up	3rd place
2010	three events	Darcy Ward (30+3 pts)	Maciej Janowski (30+2 pts)	Maksims Bogdanovs (30+1 pts)
2011	four events	Maciej Janowski (50 pts)	Darcy Ward (46+3 pts)	Przemysław Pawlicki (46+2 pts)
2012	seven events	Michael Jepsen Jensen (90 pts)	Maciej Janowski (89 pts)	Mikkel Bech Jensen (75 pts)
2013	three events	Patryk Dudek (35 pts)	Piotr Pawlicki Jr. (34 pts)	Kacper Gomólski (29 pts)
2014	three events	Piotr Pawlicki Jr. (42 pts)	Kacper Gomolski (36 pts)	Mikkel Michelsen (33 pts)
2015	three events	Bartosz Zmarzlik (39 pts)	Anders Thomsen (34 pts)	Mikkel Michelsen (34 pts)
2016	three events	Max Fricke (46 pts)	Krystian Pieszczek (40 pts)	Robert Lambert (37+3 pts)
2017	three events	Maksym Drabik (49 pts)	Bartosz Smektała (42 pts)	Max Fricke (41 pts)
2018	three events	Bartosz Smektała (56 pts)	Maksym Drabik (54 pts)	Robert Lambert (46 pts)
2019	three events	Maksym Drabik (49 pts)	Bartosz Smektała (45+3 pts)	Dominik Kubera (45+2 pts)
2020	one event	Jaimon Lidsey (20 pts)	Dominik Kubera (16 pts)	Oļegs Mihailovs (14 pts)
2021	three events	Jakub Miśkowiak (58 pts)	Mads Hansen (54 pts)	Wiktor Lampart (40 pts)

SGP2 (2022–)

Year	Venue	Winners	Runner-up	3rd place
2022	three events	Mateusz Cierniak (56 pts)	Jan Kvěch (39 pts)	Jakub Miśkowiak (38 pts)
2023	three events	Mateusz Cierniak (49 pts)	Damian Ratajczak (45 pts)	Bartłomiej Kowalski (42 pts)
2024	three events	Wiktor Przyjemski (56 pts)	Nazar Parnitskyi (46 pts)	Mathias Pollestad (43 pts)

Statistics

Medal winners per nation

Pos	National Team				Total
1.	Poland	18	15	10	43
2.	Australia	7	4	5	16
3.	Denmark	7	4	9	20
4.	Great Britain	5	7	9	21
5.	Sweden	4	6	3	13
6.	Soviet Union Russia	3	2	0	5
7.	Czechoslovakia Czech Republic	2	5	1	8
8.	United States	2	0	2	4
9.	New Zealand	0	2	0	2
10.	Norway	0	1	2	3
11.	Croatia	0	1	1	2
12.	Ukraine	0	1	0	1
13.	Slovenia	0	0	2	2
	Latvia	0	0	2	2
15.	Finland	0	0	1	1
	Germany	0	0	1	1

World champions

The following World Junior champions went on to win the Speedway World Championship.

Per Jonsson in 1990
Gary Havelock in 1992
Jason Crump in 2004, 2006 and 2009
Bartosz Zmarzlik in 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023 and 2024

References

^ "Individual Junior World Championship". Speedway History. Retrieved 4 April 2023.
^ "European Under 21 Championship 1977-1987". Edinburgh Speedway. Retrieved 15 July 2021.
^ Oakes, Peter (1981). 1981 Speedway Yearbook. Studio Publications (Ipswich) Ltd. p. 31. ISBN 0-86215-017-5.
^ Bott, Richard (1980). The Peter Collins Speedway Book No.4. Stanley Paul & Co Ltd. p. 102. ISBN 0-09-141751-1.
^ "World U21 winners". Speedweek. Retrieved 14 March 2024.
^ "FIM and Discovery to combine all Speedway series from 2022".
^ "Speedway Junioren Weltmeisterschaft (U-21)". Speedway Yesterday. Retrieved 14 March 2024.
^ "World Under 21 Championship". Edinburgh Speedway. Retrieved 15 July 2021.
^ "Speedway riders, history and results". wwosbackup. Retrieved 15 July 2021.

[1] "Individual Junior World Championship". Speedway History. Retrieved 4 April 2023.

[2] "European Under 21 Championship 1977-1987". Edinburgh Speedway. Retrieved 15 July 2021.

[3] Oakes, Peter (1981). 1981 Speedway Yearbook. Studio Publications (Ipswich) Ltd. p. 31. ISBN 0-86215-017-5.

[4] Bott, Richard (1980). The Peter Collins Speedway Book No.4. Stanley Paul & Co Ltd. p. 102. ISBN 0-09-141751-1.

[5] "World U21 winners". Speedweek. Retrieved 14 March 2024.

[6] "FIM and Discovery to combine all Speedway series from 2022".

[7] "Speedway Junioren Weltmeisterschaft (U-21)". Speedway Yesterday. Retrieved 14 March 2024.

[8] "World Under 21 Championship". Edinburgh Speedway. Retrieved 15 July 2021.

[9] "Speedway riders, history and results". wwosbackup. Retrieved 15 July 2021.

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v t e International speedway competitions
World	Individual (Grand Prix) (Qualification) Pairs (Speedway of Nations) World Team Cup (World Cup) Individual U-21 Team U-21 Individual U-16
Europe	Individual Pairs Team U21 U19 Junior (team)
National Championships	Argentina Australia / (U-21) Austria Czech/Czech Rep Denmark / (U-21) Finland France Germany/East/West Great Britain / (U-21) / (U-19) Hungary Italy Latvia New Zealand Norway Poland / (U-21) Romanian Russia/Soviet Slovenia Sweden / (U-21) USA (AMA) / USA (SRA)
National Leagues	Denmark Great Britain Poland Sweden Czech/Czech Rep Germany/East/West Hungary Russia/Soviet
Ice speedway	World Championships: Individual Team European: Individual
Long track	World Championships: Individual Team
Former Championships	Australasian British Nordic Champions Cup (indiv) Champions' Cup (teams) Commonwealth Continental Estonian Intercontinental Nordic Overseas Star Riders'
Governing Bodies	World (FIM) FIM Europe