Team Great Britain skipper Tai Woffinden
Woffinden beat pre-season odds of 500/1 and two collarbone breaks to lift speedway’s biggest prize last year.
And it appears he’ll have to overcome adversity again after he was
taken to hospital in the UK with back and foot ligament injuries
following multiple crashes in his British Elite League club
Wolverhampton’s win at Leicester last Saturday.
Woffy discharged himself and headed straight to London Heathrow
Airport to join his rivals on the marathon journey via Singapore to the
City of Sails.
And he has every intention of taking his place in the season-opening New Zealand SGP at Western Springs on Saturday.
"I discharged myself from hospital to get this flight. I'm on
pain killers. I'm struggling for movement in the left leg because of the
impact on my lower back, hip and backside. It's seriously painful but
the scans showed it's all good where the bones are concerned, nothing
broken.
"But I'm on crutches and the problem is I have to use my right foot,
which is the one with the ligament damage. That was caused by the first
crash. I thought I'd fractured my foot at first, but thankfully that's
not the case and I will be trying to rest it completely once I get to
Auckland.
"I knew I was in a bit of trouble when I bounced off the track. They
(the doctors) weren't too impressed when I said ‘I'm leaving, I've got a
flight to catch to New Zealand! but that's the way it is; it had to be
done.
"Now I'm going to arrange daily physio from the time we get to Auckland
as well as resting up in the hotel. If I have to miss the first
practice, then so be it. I'm planning to ride next Saturday. I'm determined to do all the right things this week, but it's not the best preparation for the first GP of the season.”
The 23-year-old became the youngest world champion since the SGP series was launched in 1995 last October.
But he will have to overcome three men with six World Championships
between them in Greg Hancock (USA), Nicki Pedersen (Denmark) and Chris
Holder (Australia), plus 11 more of world speedway’s finest to stay on
top.
The Scunthorpe-born star has received considerable national media
attention in the UK since his victory. He has also clinched a host of
awards, including MCN’s Man of the Year and BT Sport’s Minority
Sportsperson of the Year.
But with tapes-up on the 2014 SGP season approaching fast, the
Woffinden is focused on fighting for the title again and says being No.1
will not change his approach.
He said: "I had a pretty long break and it has been really good to get
some time off to reflect on everything, but things are all starting to
get going again now and I’m raring to go.
"Even though I’m coming into this year as world champion, everything
feels like normal – I’m just treating it like any other season. It’s
going to be another tough year, but I’m not treating things any
differently and we’ll just have to see how things go.
"At the moment, I’m just looking ahead to New Zealand really – we’ll
try and do as well as we can in Auckland and just go from there.
"As we saw last year, anything can happen in the Grand Prix – it’s so
competitive. So we’ll just have to wait and see what happens as the
season progresses.”
Woffinden tackles the likes of triple world champ Pedersen, two-time
champ Hancock and 2012 gold medallist Holder, plus Poland’s world No.2
Jaroslaw Hampel and double Danish champion Niels-Kristian Iversen, while
Aussie sensation Darcy Ward is being tipped as the bookmakers’
favourite to top the rostrum.
BSI Speedway managing director Paul Bellamy expects Woffinden to face a serious fight to retain speedway’s biggest prize.
He said: "The fact Tai won the title against such long odds underlines
just how competitive the FIM Speedway Grand Prix series is. Any of the
15 riders can win it and it could all come down to the last race of the
season.
"I couldn’t pick a winner at this stage. Having four world champions on
track, plus three more riders who have finished in the world’s top
three in Hampel, Iversen and Andreas Jonsson, underlines the pedigree of
this year’s field. It’s going to be a fascinating and enthralling fight
between now and October.”
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