YOUNGSTERS THIRD IN PRAGUE

THE Great Britain 250cc pair of William Cairns and Cooper Rushen had a sensational night at the Marketa Stadium in Prague on Tuesday with a third-place finish overall.

They finished second in their group to eventual runners-up Denmark at Round 3 of the European 250cc Pairs, which meant having a race off with Sweden to decide third and fourth places.

Sweden, who had the current SGP3 World Champion Ramus Karlsson in their pair, started the heat as favourites as the points scoring in this competition of 3-2-1-0 means if the heat ends as a 3-3, then the team whose rider wins the race gets the advantage.

GB Youth boss Neil Vatcher said: “Although Karlsson coming off gate four was favourite to win, the British boys had other ideas with William riding the race of his life to make a fantastic gate, and then blocking every move that Karlsson made inside and out to take the chequered flag to win the heat.

“Meanwhile Cooper made himself a nuisance in third place, remaining on the exhaust of Karlsson, and if he was to make a mistake then both British boys would have beaten him.”