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Speedway: Britain blood cub team in World Cup

Mark Thursfield
Monday 13 July 2009 00:00 BST
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Great Britain begin their World Cup campaign tonight with their youngest-ever team and Rob Lyon, the manager, yesterday explained his decision to invest in youth.

Ahead of tonight's event at Peterborough's East of England Showground, where his team will take on Australia, Poland and Slovenia, Lyon said: "When I came in my remit was clear, it was to win the World Cup in the next five or six years. The only way that you can do that is to start bringing some of the youngsters through. We have three or four riders who need the experience in that sort of arena. It is time for change, we need to freshen it and we need to move on."

Alongside Grand Prix winner Chris Harris (26) will be Daniel King (22), Edward Kennett (22), Tai Woffinden (18) and Lewis Bridger (19).

The winning team head straight to the World Cup final in Leszno, Poland, on Saturday while the second- and third-placed teams go for a race-off in Leszno on Thursday.

For Bridger and Woffinden this is a chance to relish. "We're here to do something spectacular," Bridger said.

He, like Kennett, was born in Hastings and graduated on his local track at Eastbourne. Both were blooded in the Elite League at an early age and have immense potential. Bridger recently won the British Under-21 title and has also qualified for the World Under-21 final, alongside team-mate Woffinden.

"The likes of me, Tai, Daniel King and Edward really aren't going to care who we're racing against," Bridger added. "We have to just go out there and give it everything we've got. If we win races, we win races and if we don't, obviously we'll be disappointed but we have nothing to lose.

"We're against some of the best guys in the world but we need to make sure we're not scared. We have to be strong."

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