At 21 yrs this will be Alexander Woentin’s last year as a junior. And naturally three medals - Sweden, Europe and the Individual World Championships – would be the dream start to a senior career.
As for many riders, 2020 was a tale-of-two-halves for the Swede. There were many months of doing nothing and not knowing if there would be any racing at all. Then, suddenly, from August it was extremely intensive.
But even under that pressure, in Målilla he took his third U21 Swedish championship in a row. When the juniors met there again later this year, he has his eye on a record equalling fourth championship, “There’s only Henrik Gustafsson who has done it before,” he reminds us.
This year, Woentin has moved clubs and is representing Vetlanda Speedway in the Bauhaus-Ligan. The club is built around double Individual World Champion, Bartosz Zmarzlik, and the aim is to get to the playoffs.
But it is not just success in Sweden that can gives him confidence. At the end of last season, he took a bronze medal at the U21 Individual European Championship behind the gold medallist, Marcus Birkemose and silver, Jakub Miśkowiak. Both riders are now racing in the PGE Ekstraliga and the Swede has also been in Poland in 2021. He has been racing in eWinner 1 with Unia Tarnow as one of their U24 riders.
As well as the European Championship he also represented Sweden in the Individual Junior World Championship in Pardubice. In upcoming weekend he will meet several of his rivals from those riders again, including Miśkowiak, in the World Championship qualifier in Gustrow.
“I have beaten many of these riders before and my aim is to just qualify. Then I’m just going to do the best I can in those three World Championships rounds,” he says.
