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SPEEDWAY ~ e (Left to right) Th e defending champion Am eri can tea m of Greg Hancock, Sam Ennolenko and Ron nie Corre y finish ed second to Sweden in the Worl d Pairs Championship. Sweden claims World Pairs title By John H ipkiss VOjENS, DENMARK,JULY 31 merica's hopes of keeping the Sp eedway World Pairs trophy were shattered in th e last of the championships to be staged under the cu rren t sys tem. The competition will lose its ranking next year when the FlM introduces the new Grand Prix system, and the tro phy will now stay with the new cha mpions, Sweden. Winners in Lonigo la st year, Sam Ermolenko and Ronnie Correy were favorites to repeat their s uccess. But though they recovered from a first hea t shock to lead for mo st of the contest, they faltered when it mattered most. They surprisingly dropped points in their opening race when Poland's young sensation, 22-year-old Tomasz Gollob, charged through on the insid e of the American pair on the first tum and led them all the way to the checkered flag. At the end of the fir st round th e defending ch ampions were in fourth place, bu t a fine piece of team riding in their second outing w hen Ermolenko shadowed his partner Correy home ahead of England's Gary Havelock and Martin Dugard took them into the lead. An other ma ximum w in follow ed against the Australian pairing of Jason Lyons and Leigh Ad am s, and thoug h Danish ace Hans Ni elsen managed to split the partn e rsh ip in the fourth round, Correy' s third wi n of the night A kep t the U.s.A. at the top of the standings with 17 points, one better than Sweden with Denma rk a further point behind. Then came the crunch. Wh en they met their nearest challengers, Sweden, in the fifth round Correy's immaculate gating skills d eserted him and he was left behind a s the Swedes Tony Rickardsson and Henrik Gustafsson swept into the bend. Ermolenko charged after them, but the Swedes kept a firm line to grab full points. Two heats later the Swedes celebrated their title by doing a similar demolition job on Brits Dugard and Screen, and though the Americans also finished on a h igh n ote with an ea s y w in o ve r Hungarians Zoltan Adorjan and [ozsef Petrikovics, they had to be sat isfied wit h the runners-up prize. Top indi vidual scorer was Sweden's Rickardsso n who dropp ed o n ly o ne point to the opposition in six rides, but the star of the meeting was Gollob who battled alone to collect 15 p oints for Po land. Neither of hi s partners managed to score. (N Ermo lenko kept the Australian team at bay to keep America's title hopes alive. Dane Hans Nielsen (12) split Correy (6) and Ermolenko (5) in race 13. Results 1. Swed en (Tony Ricka rd sson 15. Per Jon sson 9, Henrik Gu stafsson 6) 30; 2. USA (Ronnie Correy. 14. Sam Erm olen ko, 9) 23; 3. Denm ark (Hans Nielsen 14. Tommy Knudsen 6, B. Karger. J) 21; 4. Eng land Uoe Scree n 9. Mar tin Duga rd 8. Gar y Havelock t ) 18; S. Poland (fomasz Gollob 15, Piotr Swis t 0, P. Baron 0)15. 11