Preview: World Under 21 Championship.

Sixteen of the world's best speedway riders under the age of twenty-one will be on display at Peterborough on Sunday afternoon with the aim of qualification for the semi-finals of the World Under-21 Championship.

England's Oliver Allen is a fitness doubt after breaking a hand last weekend but he may try to ride with it heavily strapped and bandaged. David Howe will have home track advantage and must rate as a certainty to qualify together with Lukas Dymyl, who is in fine form this season with Oxford in the Elite League.

Current Ipswich rider Jaroslaw Hampel will be expecting an easy passage as he has Grand Prix experience and like Howe and Drymyl is showing up very well in the Elite League.

Andrew Appleton and Billy Janniro are the other to two in the field currently performing in the Elite League but they are finding it hard at the moment and will perhaps be looking at this meeting as a bit of a confidence booster, especially as some of their opposition on Sunday afternoon are something of unknown quantities.

Expect more than a handful of British promoters in attendance to take a look at riders on display, without British contracts, with an eye to the future.

Although it would be a surprise if people such as Howe, Hampel and Drymyl did not make the qualifying cut it would not be a surprise to see an 'unknown' breaking out of the pack - and keep an eye on the Polish riders Kurmanski and Kujawa to do just that.

LINE UP:

1 Patrik Linhart (Cze), 2 Chris Slavon (Can), 3 Jaroslaw Hampel (Pol), 4 David Howe (GB), 5 Eugene Smith(South Africa), 6 Philip Musil (Cze), 7 Lukas Dryml (Cze), 8 Rusty Harrison (Aus), 9 Oliver Allen (GB), 10 Rafal Kurmanski (Pol), 11 Henk Bos (Hol), 12 Dawid Kujawa (Pol), 13 Blair Scott (GB), 14 Theo Pijpe (Hol), 15 Billy Janniro (US), 16 Martin Mescke (Ger), 17 Andrew Appleton (GB), 18 Robert Grant (GB).