NIELS-KRISTIAN Iversen is chasing a return to the big-time after being recalled to the Danish squad by his Premiership teammate!
New national boss Nicki Pedersen hasn’t hesitated to bring Iversen back and admits that he is in with a realistic chance of a place in the Danish World Cup side later this summer.
Iversen hasn’t represented his country since the 2019 Speedway of Nations and even though he was top scorer with 15 points in the qualifying round at Manchester’s National Speedway Stadium he struggled in the final stages of the championship.
He scored only six points in the two legs of the Final at Togliatti, Russia, and hasn’t featured since with former manager Hans Nielsen going for a more youthful squad.
Iversen’s place went to Anders Thomsen in 2020 and Mikkel Michelsen in both 2021 and last year when the Danes finished fourth behind Australia, Great Britain and Sweden despite having home track advantage.
But Pedersen won’t hesitate to lean on the experience that 40-year-old Puk would bring to the four-man squad as the World Cup returns to the international calendar for the first time since 2017.
He has already spoken at length with Iversen, a four times team gold medallist and seven times national champion, about his selection policy and assured him that all four riders will be picked on merit and age won’t come into his thinking.
Forty-six-year-old Nicki, who will insist that he will only pick riders who buy into his philosophy and ideas after taking over from Nielsen earlier this year, said: “People like Niels can bring a lot to the team and I have told him that.”
And Iversen will have the advantage of being in the same Peterborough team as his gaffer after Pedersen returned to regular league activity in Britain for the first time since 2011.
He is currently having regular treatment on back and hand injuries sustained in a second bend crash last Monday in his first Panthers’ race of 2023 in the hope of being fit enough to take his place in the Easter Monday line-up against top-flight returnees Leicester.
Words by Holeshot Media.
Image by Jeff Davies.