Matej Žagar (born 3 April 1983 in

Ljubljana Ljubljana (also known by other historical names) is the capital and largest city of Slovenia. It is the country's cultural, educational, economic, political and administrative center. During antiquity, a Roman city called Emona stood in the ar ...

, Slovenia) is a Slovenian

motorcycle speedway Motorcycle speedway, usually referred to simply as speedway, is a motorcycle sport involving four and sometimes up to six riders competing over four anti-clockwise laps of an oval circuit. The motorcycles are specialist machines that use only ...

rider who was won two Individual Speedway European Champion titles in

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

and

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

Career

In 2002, he won the 2002 Individual Speedway Junior European Championship and the following year made his debut in the Individual World Championship. He began his career in the United Kingdom with the

Trelawny Tigers Trelawny Tigers operated as a British Premier League (speedway), Premier League Motorcycle speedway, speedway team from 2001 to 2003 at the Clay Country Moto Parc. History The club was formed in 2001, as a replacement for the St Austell Gull ...

in 2003 before moving to the

Reading Racers Reading Racers are a British motorcycle speedway team. Formed in 1968, they won four British League titles during their history. The club closed in October 2008 after the lease on Smallmead Stadium was sold and the site was demolished. In 2016 a ...

in 2004 when the Tigers closed. He became a permanent rider in the 2006 Speedway Grand Prix and

2007 Speedway Grand Prix The 2007 Speedway Grand Prix was the 62nd edition of the official World Championship and the 13th season in the Speedway Grand Prix era used to determine the Speedway World Champion. It was the first under the promotion of IMG, who had purchased s ...

seasons. In the UK he represented Reading, Swindon and Eastbourne before quitting the United Kingdom after an underwhelming 2010 campaign. He was touted as a potential GP wildcard for the 2012 SGP season following impressive and consistent performances in the Polish Extraliga with Gorzow, but turned down the opportunity to replace Darcy Ward due to the 1GP rider in the Extraliga and his contract with Gorzow, where 2010 world champion Tomasz Gollob was signed up. He returned to the UK after signing for the

Belle Vue Aces The Belle Vue Aces are a British motorcycle speedway, speedway club, based in Manchester. The club hold the record of having won the top tier List of United Kingdom speedway league champions, League championship 13 times. They currently compete ...

in 2013 and rode for them until 2016. In 2021, after 9 consecutive Grand Prix seasons and finishing in 13th place he lost his permanent place in the Grand Prix World Championship but did ride in the 2022 season opener in his home country. In 2022, he once again returned to the British speedway with the Belle Vue Aces and was part of the team that won the league title during the

SGB Premiership 2022 The 2022 SGB Premiership was the 87th season of the top tier of British Speedway and the 5th known as the SGB Premiership. Sheffield Tigers topped the regular season table and met Belle Vue Aces in the play off final but Belle Vue ran out the winn ...

Career highlights

Individual World Championship

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

- 30th place (5 points) *

- 27th place (8 points) *

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

- 16th place (23 points) *

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

- 7th place (97 points) *

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

- 14th place (54 points) *

- 20th place (7 points) *

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

- 19th place (7 points) *

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

- 19th place (14 points) *

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

- 7th place (110 points) *

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

- 5th place (114 points) - including

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

Grand prix win *

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

- 6th place (107 points) - including

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

and Gorzow Grand Prix wins *

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

- 9th place (90 points) *

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

- 7th place (107 points) - including

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

and Scandinavian Grand Prix wins *

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

- 10th place (79 points) *

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

- 9th place (78 points) *

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...

- 11th place (46 points) *

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

- 13th place (45 points) *

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...

- 18th place (11 points)

Individual U-21 World Championship

- 6th place (8 points) *

- track reserve (1 point) *

- 5th place (10 points) *

- 3rd place (8 points and 3rd in Final)

Team World Championship

* ''

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

- 6 points in Preliminary Round 1'' * ''

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

- 10th-11th place (5 points in Event 3)'' * ''

- 9th place (13 points in Event 2)'' * ''

- 9th-10th place (18 points in Qualifying Round 2)'' * ''

- 9th-10th place (11 points in Qualifying Round 2)'' * ''

- 9th-10th place (17 points in Qualifying Round 2)'' * ''

- 13th-14th place (16 points in Qualifying Round 1)'' * ''

- 11th-12th place '' * ''

- 4th place in Semi-finals (10 points in semi-final)'' * ''

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

- 9th-10th place '' * ''

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

- 9th-10th place '' * ''

- 11th place '' * ''

- 12th place ''

Individual European Championship

- 15th place (4 points) *

- 4th place (10 points) *

- European Champion (14+3 points) *

- 17th place (0 points) *

- European Champion (14 points)

Individual U-19 European Championship

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

- 11th place (8 points) *

- track reserve (2 points) *

- European Champion (15 points)

European Pairs Championship

- 3rd place (14 points) *

- 2nd place (11 points)

European Club Champions' Cup

- European Champion (15 points) *

- 3rd place (20 points) *

- 3rd place in Semi-Final (12 points) *

- 3rd place in Semi-Final (injury)

Speedway Grand Prix results

References

Rider profile

External links

Personal web site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zagar, Matej 1983 births Living people Slovenian speedway riders Individual Speedway European Champions Individual Speedway Junior European Champions Belle Vue Aces riders Trelawny Tigers riders Sportspeople from Ljubljana