- FIM Ice Speedway of Nations set for Thialf Ice Stadium
- Sport’s leading nations assemble in the Netherlands
- Sweden aims to strike gold for the fourth time
A highly-specialised discipline that has traditionally been contested by racers from northern countries, teams from Sweden, Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Finland and the host nation will be in action, fighting for the right to call themselves the sport’s undisputed number one as the competition returns to the calendar for the first time since 2020.
Taking place in the Dutch venue the day after the deciding round of the 2026 FIM Ice Speedway World Championship, on previous form the Swedes – three-times winners of the ISoN and runners up in 2020 – were highly-favoured until the late withdrawal of four-time and defending individual champion Martin Haarahiltunen.
The current leader of this year’s world championship, Haarahiltunen will be replaced by Filip Jäger, who lies eleventh following the opening two rounds, alongside Niclas Svensson – a veteran of the 2020 ISoN – who sits second in the points table. The still powerful Swedish trio is completed by team captain Ove Ledström who is eighth in the standings.
With eight silver and six bronze medals from the competition, Austria has enjoyed its fair share of success over the years, although the gold has always eluded the Alpine nation that will be captained this time around by the experienced Martin Posch who is joined by Harald Simon – who competed in the 2020 ISoN – and Josef Kreuzberger.
While the more temperate climate of the Netherlands has little in common with the frozen lakes and waterways of the north where the sport originates, the home nation has established itself as one of Ice Speedway’s major players and a big turnout of Dutch fans is expected to cheer on Jasper Iwema, Sebastian Reitsma and Leon Kramer.
With Reitsma currently sitting tenth in the individual standings – two places ahead of 2025 fourth-ranked rider and team captain Iwema – and Kramer a solid fifteenth, the Dutch are definite podium contenders, as are the trio from the Czech Republic.
Both Lukáš Hutla and Andrej Diviš, who are joined on the Czech team by David Ližák, represented their country in 2020 and both have scored solid points in this year’s individual series with Hutla currently ninth, four places ahead of Diviš.
Germany claimed ISoN bronze the last time the competition was staged and although Max Niedermaier is the sole survivor from its 2020 team, the proud nation will be determined to push for the podium with Niedermaier – who won individual silver in 2024 and currently sits fifth in the standings – as captain alongside his cousin Maximilian Niedermaier and Christoph Kirchner.
Last on the entry list – but by no means least – is a strong showing from Finland with Max Koivula fielded alongside team captain Heikki Huusko and Arttu Lehtinen.
The individual bronze medallist last season, Koivula is currently sitting just four points behind Haarahiltunen in the FIM Ice Speedway World Championship standings and will be hoping to replicate this fine form in the ISoN. Huusko has also shown great speed this year and scored a podium at last month’s opening individual Final, giving the Finns a fighting chance of winning a first medal in the competition since 2014. |
