ZAGAR'S SLOVENIAN SON PRIDE

Slovenian star Matej Zagar backed his country to build on their heroic Monster Energy FIM Speedway of Nations showing.

Zagar, winner of 16 straight Slovenian Championships, is regarded as his nation’s greatest speedway star. And he nearly inspired them into their first world final when he scored 14 points at Race Off 1 in Teterow to earn Slovenia a spot in the knock-out heats.

They reached final knock-out against Denmark after filling the minor places behind lone American star Greg Hancock. This was after Grin’s partner Gino Manzares crashed out in USA’s heat battle with Slovenia as he tried to overhaul Zagar while the slowing SGP star tried to help partner Matic Ivacic into third.

Zagar won the final knock-out ahead of Kenneth Bjerre and Michael Jepsen Jensen, but the Danes did enough to book their place in the Finals.

While Slovenia fell just short, Zagar believes his side will grow from that performance and hopes Bydgoszcz rider Ivacic and recently-qualified World Under-21 finalist Nick Skorja will gain more experience on the world stage.

He said: “I think we did a good job. I’m proud of what we did. If we had achieved third place, that would have been some kind of miracle, to be honest. It wasn’t far away, but in speedway nowadays, you cannot predict it.

“The potential to do better is definitely there if Matic and Nick do more meetings – more international meetings. Hopefully year by year we can improve.

“In the final knock-out race, it was all about the second guy. I knew I had to get away and whatever was going to happen behind me would happen. There is no shame in just missing out and we can only be proud. Hopefully the future is bright.”