Speedway World Pairs Championship

The Speedway World Pairs Championship was an annual speedway (motorcycling) event held each year in different countries. The first competition was held in 1968 and the final competition was held in 1993. From 1994 it was merged with the World Team Cup to create the current Speedway World Cup.

Rules

The final was competed between seven national teams, and each national team was represented by two riders. Each pairing rode against each other once. The pair with the highest combined score were declared the Champions. From 1991, a third rider could act as reserve.

The 1968 and 1969 events, were not considered to be official championship meetings, even though medals were given out in the 1969 event.

1968 (Kempten, West Germany) 1st Sweden 24 pts (Ove Fundin 14, Torbjorn Harrysson 10) 2nd Great Britain 21 pts (Geoff Mudge 12, Ray Wilson 9) 3rd Norway 16 pts (Odd Fossengen 11, Oyvind S Berg 5) West Germany (2) 12 pts (Peter Barth 9, Rudolf Kastl 3) West Germany (1) 10 pts (Manfred Poschenrieder 8, Fred Aberl 2, Rainer Jungling 0) Denmark 6 pts (Jens Hauser 4, Kurt W Petersen 2)

1969 (Stockholm, Sweden) 1st New Zealand 28 pts (Ivan Mauger 18, Bobby Andrews 10) 2nd Sweden 27 pts (Ove Fundin 14, Gote Nordin 10) 3rd England 21 pts (Nigel Boocock 11, Martin Ashby 10) Denmark 17 pts (Ole Olsen 13, Bengt Norregaard 4) Czechoslovakia 15 pts (Jan Holub 9, Zdenek Majstr 6) East Germany 9 pts (Gerhard Uhlenbrock 8, Jochen Dinse 1) Bulgaria 8 pts (Peter Petkov 6, Peter Iliev 2)

The 1971 Final won by Poles Jerzy Szczakiel and Andrzej Wyglenda and 1982 Final won by Americans Bobby Schwartz and Dennis Sigalos were the only World Pairs Finals that were won with the maximum possible score.

Winners

Year	Venue	Winners	Runner-up	3rd place
1968	Kempten	Sweden (24 pts)	Great Britain (21 pts)	Norway (16 pts)
1969	Stockholm	New Zealand (28 pts)	Sweden (27 pts)	England (21 pts)
Year	Venue	Winners	Runner-up	3rd place
1970	Malmö	New Zealand (28 pts)	Sweden (25 pts)	England (19 pts)
1971	Rybnik	Poland (30 pts)	New Zealand (25 pts)	Sweden (22 pts)
1972	Borås	England (24+3 pts)	New Zealand (24+2 pts)	Sweden B (22+3 pts)
1973	Borås	Sweden (24 pts)	Denmark (21+3 pts)	Poland (21+2 pts)
1974	Manchester	Sweden (28 pts)	Australia (23 pts)	New Zealand (21 pts)
1975	Wrocław	Sweden (24 pts)	Poland (23 pts)	Denmark (20+3 pts)
1976	Eskilstuna	England (27 pts)	Denmark (24 pts)	Sweden (22 pts)
1977	Manchester	England (28 pts)	Sweden (18 pts)	West Germany (18 pts)
1978	Chorzów	England (24+3 pts)	New Zealand (24+2 pts)	Denmark (21 pts)
1979	Vojens	Denmark (25 pts)	England (24 pts)	Poland (20 pts)
1980	Krško	England (29 pts)	Poland (22 pts)	Denmark (21 pts)
Year	Venue	Winners	Runner-up	3rd place
1981	Chorzów	United States (23 pts)	New Zealand (22 pts)	Poland (21 pts)
1982	Sydney	United States (30 pts)	England (22 pts)	Denmark (21 pts)
1983	Gothenburg	England (25 pts)	Australia (24 pts)	Denmark (19 pts)
1984	Lonigo	England (27 pts)	Denmark (25+3 pts)	New Zealand (25+2 pts)
1985	Rybnik	Denmark (29 pts)	England (27 pts)	United States (22 pts)
1986	Pocking	Denmark (46+5 pts)	United States (46+4 pts)	Czechoslovakia (32 pts)
1987	Pardubice	Denmark (52 pts)	England (44 pts)	United States (36 pts)
1988	Bradford	Denmark (45 pts)	England (41 pts)	United States (39 pts)
1989	Leszno	Denmark (48 pts)	Sweden (44 pts)	England (37 pts)
1990	Landshut	Denmark (43 pts)	Australia (41 pts)	Hungary (33 pts)
Year	Venue	Winners	Runner-up	3rd place
1991	Poznań	Denmark (28 pts)	Sweden (24 pts)	Norway (19 pts)
1992	Lonigo	United States (23+3 pts)	England (23+2 pts)	Sweden (22 pts)
1993	Vojens	Sweden (26 pts)	United States (23 pts)	Denmark (21 pts)
Year	Venue	Winners	Runner-up	3rd place

See also

• motorcycle speedway