LEICESTER hosted the 2024 Women’s British Open Speedway Final on Saturday evening which ran alongside a staging of a British Youth Championship round.
Unfortunately, prior to the event German riders Patrica Erhart due to a broken collarbone and Hannah Grunwald who had transport issues were unavailable to attend.
However, the event this year still had a true international flavour with alongside top British female riders Rachel Hellowell and Katie Gordon, the 2024 FIM Women’s Gold Trophy winner Celina Liebmann from Germany and Australian rider Teagan Pedler both took part.
Although as expected Liebmann was untroubled in her qualifying heats, Hellowell also looked good in her heats and followed Liebmann home each time, and as in this competition the winner of the final heat is crowned the winner of the event, Hellowell was confident that she could challenge for the title that Liebmann was looking to retain after winning the same event in 2023.
However, this did not go quite to plan and Liebmann led from the start, so Hellowell knew she had to be brave to get to the front, and although she tried to pass Liebmann going into the third bend on the first lap, she ran into trouble and slid off, meaning the race had to be stopped and re-run with Hellowell unfortunately being disqualified as the primary cause of the stoppage.
In the re-run Liebmann made no mistake and retained her British Open Championship with Pedler finishing as runner up and Gordon in third.
This was the second staging of this championship and an improvement all round from the first staging in 2023, and it it hoped that in 2025 more competitors will be taking part.
Race Report and Feature Image by British Speedway
