Tuesday, January 13, 2026
OXFORD SPEEDWAY
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Bronze medal for Mitch McDiarmid in World Under-21 Pairs Championship

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MITCH McDIARMID, the 17-year-old star of the SD Timmo Car Sales Oxford Cheetahs powered by County Plumbing Supplies, picked up a bronze medal with Australia in the Speedway Of Nations 2 (World Under-21 Pairs Championship) in Torun, Poland last night (Friday).

McDiarmid top-scored for Australia on 19 points, dropping only three points in six outings to riders from other nations. The Australians finished on 37 points, just two behind eventual winners Germany.

McDiarmid was taken out of his second outing in Heat 5 by team manager Mark Lemon and replaced by reserve James Pearson. The Australians conceded a 6-3 to Germany, with Pearson last. Had McDiarmid taken the outing and beaten Mario Hausl, the Australians would have taken gold.

Apart from that, the Australians were the most solid pairing, with both McDiarmid and team-mate Tate Zischke scoring in every outing, which is crucial under the 4-3-2-0 scoring system.

The Germans were highly-deserving if surprise winners. Apart from star man Norick Blodorn, they were represented by Seychelles-born Hausl and female rider Hannah Grunwald, the first-ever woman to line-up in the final of a world speedway event. Grunwald was not given an outing, but still ended up with a notable gold medal.

Pre-meeting favourites Denmark and Poland both threw away points and finished second and fourth in a tight four-way battle for the championship that went all the way to the last of 28 races.

Great Britain finished seventh out of eight nations. Luke Killeen, a team-mate of McDiarmid at Oxford, took three reserve outings for Team GB. He struggled on the large Torun track and failed to score, but will have picked up valuable experience for the future.

RESULT:

Germany 39: Norick Blodorn 24, Mario Hausl 15, Hannah Grunwald DNR.

Denmark 38: Bastian Pedersen 4, Mikkel Andersen 21, Villads Nagel 13.

Australia 37: Mitch McDiarmid 19, Tate Zischke 18, James Pearson 0.

Poland 35: Maksymillian Pawelczak 24, Damian Ratajczak 2, Antoni Kawczynski 9.

Czech Republic 31: Adam Bednar 27, Jan Jenicek 4, Jaroslav Vanicek 0.

Sweden 28: Casper Henriksson 15, Rasmus Karlsson 7, Erik Persson 6.

Great Britain 26: Dan Thompson 23, Luke Harrison 3, Luke Killeen 0.

Latvia 18: Nikita Kaulins 11, Artjoms Juhno 7, Damirs Filimonovs 0.

PHOTO by Steve Edmunds