Bartosz Zmarzlik Bidding for Fifth World Championship in 2024

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Polish rider Bartosz Zmarzlik goes into the 2024 Speedway World Championship bidding to become one of only four men to win the competition five times or more. He would join Tony Rickardsson, Ivan Mauger, and Ove Fundin, an elite list of the greatest speedway riders in history.

Zmarzlik lifted the trophy in 2023 after finishing the ten stages on 158 points. He was pushed hard by his rival Fredrik Lindgren, but his five stage wins were enough to secure a fourth world championship success.

The Man to Beat Again

The defending champion is the odds-on favourite at 1/2 withPaddy Powerto win the 2024 Speedway World Championship. The only time he did not lift the trophy in the competition in the last five years was in 2021 when he finished second.

As thisodds calculatorindicates, a £10 bet on Zmarzlik this year will return a payout of £15. He heads into the 2024 campaign bidding to break Jason Crump’s record of grand prix wins. He needs just one more grand prix victory to do that.

In what was a fantastic year in 2023, Zmarzlik also won the European Team Speedway Championship and Speedway World Cup with Poland, asEurosport documented.

Competition to Defending Champion

Denmark’s Leon Madsen is expected to be one of the main challengers to Bartosz Zmarzlik in the 2024 Speedway World Championship. He was runner-up in 2019 and 2022 behind the Polish rider. In the former, he finished the classification just two points behind the winner.

Madsen ended 2023 in good form to take fifth place in the standings. He won the Speedway Grand Prix of Denmark, the penultimate event on the calendar, while in Torun, the final grand prix of the year, he picked up the bronze medal.

The experienced rider is bidding to become the first Dane to win the Speedway World Championship since Nicki Pedersen in 2008. If victorious, he will be the sixth rider from Denmark to become a world champion.

Last year’s runner-up Lindgren will get another shot at the Speedway World Championship in 2024. It will be his 19th appearance in the competition. His second-place finish in 2023 was the best he has fared in his career.

The World Cup winner prevailed in the Warsaw Grand Prix in 2023. He was the runner-up in Riga, Vojens, and Torun. If he can convert some of those seconds into victories this year, he will have an excellent chance of a maiden triumph.

Expansion to 11 Stages

This year’s Speedway World Championship has expanded from ten stages to 11 Grand Prix. Manchester has been added tothe new calendarin July. It will take place at the National Speedway Stadium.

There is also a return to Wroclaw’s Olympic Stadium in Poland. The venue was used for the Speedway World Cup in 2023, so the riders will be very familiar with the track at the Polish stadium.

The 2024 Speedway World Championship begins on the 27th of April in Sonji Kraljevec, Croatia and it ends on the 28th of September in Torun, Poland.

Speedway Digest Staff
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