Fast females from six countries spread across three continents will fire into action this coming Saturday (22 June) for the first-ever running of the FIM Women’s Speedway Gold Trophy (WSGT) that will be staged in the Bergring Arena at Teterow in Germany.
A product of the ongoing collaboration between the FIM Track Racing Commission (CCP) and the FIM Women's Commission (CFM) that is successfully encouraging diversity and promoting gender inclusivity, the WSGT follows immediately after the two-day FIM Women’s Speedway Academy (WSA) at the same venue.
As such, it is no surprise that all eleven competitors will have two days of training and mentoring under their belts having attended the WSA so spectators can expect polished performances and close, competitive racing across four blocks of Heats and a Grand Final.
Leading the entry is arguably women’s Speedway’s biggest name, Germany’s Celina Liebmann. The twenty-three-year-old became the first-ever female to race an FIM Speedway Under 21 World Championship (SGP2) event in 2022 and continued to further the cause of gender inclusivity at the end of last year when she became the first woman to sign for a British team, and also a Polish team too.
Liebmann is by no means the only rider in action with experience of racing at a very high level. Dutch teenager Nynke Sijbesma contested the FIM Long Track Under 23 World Cup in 2023 and Britain’s Katie Gordon is a two-time national women’s Speedway champion.
Gordon will be joined behind the tapes by her compatriot Rachel Hellowell who will be aiming to give herself an early thirtieth birthday present with solid results on Saturday, while thirty-four-year-old Micaela Bazan from Argentina is another racer hoping to use her considerable experience in the sport to secure a good result.
The home nation will be well represented with Mascha Schwend, Jenny Apfelbeck, Patricia Erhart and Hannah Grunwald – who has been racing since the age of six – lining up alongside Liebmann and French rider Audrey Dupuy, who regularly competes against men in Speedway and Long Track, is another competitor who should not be under-estimated.
The line-up is completed by the farthest travelled of the field, Anika Loftus, who is a multi-time Australian national champion and has been preparing for the WSGT in Denmark.
Around two-hundred kilometres north of Berlin, the Bergring Arena is a regular stop on the FIM Speedway Grand Prix World Championship calendar and its immaculate facilities will provide a fitting venue for such a prestigious inaugural event.
The action is scheduled to get under way at 20:00 local time. For more information click here.
STARTING LIST HERE
FIM Communications