SO NEAR FOR CAIRNS

WILLIAM Cairns came agonisingly close to a bronze medal in Riga on Sunday afternoon in the European 250cc Final – just missing out on a rostrum place on countback.

Cairns, who was drawn at No.1, got a second place in Heat 1, then sensationally won his second heat beating three of the pre-meeting favourites all in one race – the SGP3 World Champion Ramus Karlsson, and both of the semi-final winners Kacper Mania and Maksymilian Pawelczak, both from Poland.

Cairns then added another six points to his score with three second places, and ended the Final on 11 points, the same score as Poland’s Emil Maroszek – but Maroszek claimed the bronze medal due to winning two of his heats, compared to Cairns only having one race win.

Denmark’s Mikkel Andersen retained his European title, just dropping his only point to Karlsson, and Kacper Mania claimed the silver medal.

Cairns, along with fellow Brit Cooper Rushen, now moves on to Prague a week on Tuesday for the third round of the European 250cc Pairs.