Blair Scott has departed to Krsko in Slovenia for the biggest individual meeting of his career. He competes in the semi-final of the World Under-21 Championship and is chasing a place in the final to be staged at Peterborough.
It is Blair's last shot at the title as he has now turned 21. It is the furthest he has got in this competition. He first entered in 1996 as a 15-year old and won the quarter-final at Linlithgow that year becomeing the youngest ever winner of a World Championship qualifier. Blair has made the British final several times. He qualified for the Continental stages in 1998 only to find that the rules were changed to allow Leigh Lanham another crack after he failed to qualify. Blair was expected to qualify in 2000 when Edinburgh staged the British final but never got going. Blair seemed to have missed out this year when he finished ninth in the British Final at Wolverhampton. However injuries ruled out Paul Lee and gave Blair a second crack with a place in the World quarter-final at Peterborough. Blair grabbed this chance with both hands and qualified for the Krsko semi-final. Blair has no illusions about winning this event but is hopig to hang in there and make it through to the final on more familiar ground.
The full field is as follows:
1. Rafal Okoniewski (Poland)
2. Jernej Kolenko (Slovenia)
3. Ross Brady (Great Britain)
4. To be notified (Slovenia)
5. David Howe (Great Britain)
6. Tomasz Chrzanowski (Poland)
7. Hans Andersen (Denmark)
8. Freddie Eriksson (Sweden)
9. Matej Zagar (Slovenia)
10. Martin Smolanski (Germany)
11. Janos Galenka (Hungary)
12. Chris Slabon (Canada)
13. Simon Stead (Great Britain)
14. David Kujawa (Poland)
15. Blair Scott (Great Britain)
16. Henning Bager (Denmark)
Res. Manuel Hauzinger (Austria)
Res. Kenneth Bjerre (Denmark)
This is a powerful field including Edinburgh asset Ross Brady and Glasgow target Henning Bager. Front runners will include Simon Stead and David Howe plus the Polish/Candian sensation Chris Slabon. There will be three Slovenian riders who may be able to exploit local track knowledge.
The second semi-final at Rybnik in Poland looks to have a slightly less intimidating field. British interest is maintained by Chris Harris, Lee Smethills, plus reserve Chris Neath. Aussie Scott Smith is there and Rusty Harrison is reserve. Pole Jaroslaw Hampel of Ipswich and Finn Joonas Kymakorpi of Eastbourne must be amongst the front runners along with Lukas Dryml (if fit).