LINDGREN IN TITLE CHASE

Swedish star Freddie Lindgren is pleased to have kept himself firmly in the FIM Speedway World Championship-chasing pack.

Lindgren reached the Norrbil Swedish SGP final last weekend, exiting with 10 points. Fast Freddie is sixth in the standings on 42, but just five points off the lead, which is shared by Emil Sayfutdinov, Patryk Dudek and Leon Madsen, who all have 47.

With seven rounds to race, Lindgren knows he’s very much a contender in a tight race for the sport’s biggest prize.

He said: “It’s really tightening up in the points. There are six guys within five points. It’s super tight.

“Obviously I would have wanted to make the final. But at the end of the day, I have to look at the positive things.

“I started off with a very tough last place. But I managed to keep myself cool, regroup and get double figures in the end. I’m hanging in there in the top group and that’s important for me.”

Lindgren leads his country into the Monster Energy FIM Speedway of Nations Finals in Togliatti next weekend alongside Peter Ljung and under-21 rider Filip Hjelmland.

He proved his ability to lead on the track with an 18-point maximum to fire Sweden to Russia.

And he also showed leadership off the shale in Hallstavik as he launched his ‘Love has no label’ campaign in support of the Pride movement.

“Everyone should feel like they can love whoever they want to love,” he said. “It doesn’t mean you are a bad person if you love someone from the same gender or a different race or something like that. It’s all about love and we need to stop all the hating.

“I feel it is an important topic. I have a cousin who came out as gay a couple of years ago. I am proud of myself and my family; he was very nervous to tell everyone and I can only imagine how he was feeling inside before he came out. He’s just the same lovely person now and it doesn’t matter who you love.”