PIRATES' NICO TO LEAD ITALY IN SPEEDWAY OF NATIONS QUEST

Pirates star Nico Covatti will lead Italy’s quest to reach the Monster Energy FIM Speedway of Nations finals.

Covatti will captain the Italian team in race-off one at Landshut on Saturday, May 4 and is joined by national champion Paco Castagna and under-21 Michele Menani.

Covatti’s team will face stiff competition to reach the finals in Togliatti, however, with Poland led by former Pirate Maciej Janowski and Grand Prix star Bartosz Zmarzlik and Freddie Lindgren’s Sweden also in the race-off one line-up.

The Swedish squad also features former Wimborne Road star Antonio Lindback, while Grand Prix regular Patryk Dudek is a reserve in the strong-looking Polish team.

Each country can name up to five riders, with three seniors and two under-21s permitted. Riders not selected to race in Landshut can cover for injured team-mates and can be called up as starters for the finals in Togliatti.

CZECH REPUBLIC: 1 Vaclav Milik (captain), 2 Eduard Krcmar, U21 Jan Kvech. Also in squad: Josef Franc, Petr Chlupac (U21).

GERMANY: 1 Kai Huckenbeck (captain), 2 Martin Smolinski, U21 Michael Hartel. Also in squad: Erik Riss, Lukas Fienhage (U21).

ITALY: 1 Nicolas Covatti (captain), 2 Paco Castagna, U21 Michele Menani. Also in squad: Nicolas Vicentin.

POLAND: 1 Maciej Janowski (captain), 2 Bartosz Zmarzlik, U21 Bartosz Smektala. Also in squad: Patryk Dudek, Maksym Drabik (U21).

SLOVENIA: 1 Matej Zagar (captain), 2 Matic Ivacic, U21 Nick Skorja.

SWEDEN: 1 Fredrik Lindgren (captain), 2 Peter Ljung, U21 Filip Hjelmland. Also in squad: Antonio Lindback, Alexander Woentin (U21).

UKRAINE: 1 Andriy Karpov, 2 Aleksandr Loktaev, U21 Marko Levishyn.