IVERSEN: FIGHTING BACK AFTER INJURY BATTLES

Denmark’s former world No.3 Niels-Kristian Iversen insists he still has the determination to mix it at the sport’s highest level.

The four-time FIM Speedway World Cup winner was eliminated from the Speedway GP series after suffering a catalogue of injuries during the pandemic season of 2020 – shoulder damage in June and a fractured hand in early August, before sustaining rib injuries in the Polish play-offs.

The timing of these knocks was devastating as the shoulder injury came just before Poland’s PGE Ekstraliga resumed after lockdown restrictions were eased, before Iversen hand injury struck just weeks before an eight-round Speedway GP series, condensed from its usual five-month schedule into just five weeks from the end of August to early October.

Things didn’t get any better in 2021. Iversen broke his shoulder on his debut for Polish club Tarnow in April, before picking up lung damage and fractured vertebrae in another heavy crash in June.

Mercifully, Iversen has had a better spell over the past two years and hopes that rotten run of luck is behind him now. 

While he celebrates his 42nd birthday this year, the Esbjerg-born star insists he is still determined to rediscover something resembling the form that carried him to Speedway GP bronze in 2013 and five SGP wins.

Reflecting on a rollercoaster few years, he said: “When I was in the GP and we had the Covid-19 season in 2020, it was an extremely tough time for me with injuries. I almost didn’t race and that was devastating to my career.

“I had two seasons where I was just injured in 2020 and 2021, and it felt like I had such a setback in terms of how I was mentally and how I was riding. That has been really difficult to get past.

“I feel like it is behind me now and I have had a good two years when I have been riding consistently and I have been doing okay – not anything near where I know I can be, but it has been consistent and alright. Hopefully I can take it another step forward this year and then I will be closer to where I want to be.

“When people start to go down, maybe it’s because they don’t have the will to prepare anymore or really put the work in. But I still do. I still work really hard at it, and I have been working extremely hard this winter on my fitness and also with a sports psychologist – just to try and get to a better level. I think as long as you have that determination to do it, it is possible.

“I haven’t been happy with how I have been racing for a couple of years. I am competitive as a person. I have a winning mentality and I want to be the best I can be. If I don’t think that way anymore, I think it would be time to retire. As long as I am racing, I am going for it.”

Iversen is set to feature in Denmark’s Speedway GP and Speedway European Championship qualifying event at Vojens on April 16, where the top five riders will earn places in the international qualifiers. 

NKI hopes to land a place in the SEC qualifiers to compete for a berth in the four-round 2024 series, which sees the champion earn a guaranteed Speedway GP place for 2025. 

But he is undecided on whether he will battle for a spot in the SGP international rounds, which will see riders compete for places at the FIM SGP Challenge in Pardubice, where the top four riders secure spots in the 2025 Speedway GP line-up.

“I will definitely do the qualification for the SEC,” Iversen said. “I haven’t really made my mind up with regards to the Speedway GP qualifiers.

“I was there for many years, and I would like to go back there. But I want to be competitive. Considering how my form has been for the past couple of seasons, I don’t think there would be much for me in the GP. But having said that, it is still in the back of my mind, and I am still working hard to try and improve as a rider and get back to the better form I have shown.”