Rune Bertil Leopold Sörmander (1929-2020) was an international speedway rider from Sweden.

Speedway career

Sörmander was one of speedway's leading riders during the 1950s and 1960s, he was a three times champion of Sweden, winning the Swedish Championship in 1955, 1958 and 1959. He reached the final of the

Speedway World Championship The World Championship of Speedway is an international competition between the highest-ranked motorcycle speedway riders of the world, run under the auspices of the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM). The first official champions ...

on seven occasions (1953, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962) and the final of the

Individual Speedway Long Track World Championship This is the complete list of Individual Long Track World Championship medalists from 1971. Also included are the medalists from 1957 to 1970 when the championship was known as the European Individual Long Track Championship. Medalists European L ...

three times (1959, 1961, 1962). He also helped Sweden win the

World Team Cup The World Team Cup was the international men's team championship of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). The inaugural edition of the tournament was contested in 1975 in Kingston, Jamaica and was called the Nations Cup. No tourname ...

in 1960, 1962, 1963 and 1964 He rode in the top tier of British Speedway, riding for various clubs.

World Final appearances

Individual World Championship

1953 Events January * January 6 – The Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma. * January 12 – Estonian émigrés found a government-in-exile in Oslo. * January 14 ** Marshal Josip Broz Tito is chosen President of Yug ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 2002 to 2003. The stadium ...

- 11th - 5pts *

1957 1957 ( MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1957th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 957th year of the 2nd millennium, the 57th year of the 20th century, and the 8th year ...

- 5th - 11pts + 1pt *

1958 Events January * January 1 – The European Economic Community (EEC) comes into being. * January 3 – The West Indies Federation is formed. * January 4 ** Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the third ...

- 13th - 4pts *

1959 Events January * January 1 - Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 - Lunar probe Luna 1 was the first man-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reached the vicinity of E ...

- 11th - 6pts *

1960 It is also known as the "Year of Africa" because of major events—particularly the independence of seventeen African nations—that focused global attention on the continent and intensified feelings of Pan-Africanism. Events January * Jan ...

- 12th - 5pts *

1961 Events January * January 3 ** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and consular relations with Cuba (Cuba–United States relations are restored in 2015). ** Aero Flight 311 (K ...

Malmö Malmö (, ; da, Malmø ) is the largest city in the Swedish county (län) of Scania (Skåne). It is the third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the sixth-largest city in the Nordic region, with a municipal pop ...

Malmö Stadion Malmö Stadion, often known simply as Stadion before the construction of the new Stadion between 2007 and 2009, is a multi-purpose stadium in Malmö, Sweden. As of 2015, it is the home of association football club IFK Malmö, presently of Div ...

- 8th - 7pts *

1962 Events January * January 1 – Western Samoa becomes independent from New Zealand. * January 3 – Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro for preaching communism. * January 8 – Harmelen train disaster: 93 die in the wor ...

- 11th - 7pts

World Team Cup

- Gothenburg,

Ullevi Ullevi, sometimes known as Nya Ullevi (, ''New Ullevi''), is a multi-purpose stadium in Gothenburg, Sweden. It was built for the 1958 FIFA World Cup, but since then has also hosted the World Allround Speed Skating Championships six times; the ...

(with

Olle Nygren Harald Olof "Olle" Ingemar Nygren (11 November 1929 – 13 February 2021) was a Swedish speedway rider who reached the finals of the Speedway World Championship five times. Nygren was Swedish Champion in 1949 and became Nordic Champion in 1960. ...

Ove Fundin Ove Fundin (born 23 May 1933) is a Swedish former professional motorcycle speedway rider. He competed in the Speedway World Championships from 1951 to 1970. Fundin is notable for winning the Speedway World Champ ...

Björn Knutsson Björn Knutsson (born 1938 in Sweden) is a former speedway rider who won the Speedway World Championship in 1965 and was a four-time winner of the World Team Cup. He gained the nickname 'The Crown Prince' for his speedway success. World Final ...

) - Winner - 44pts (11) *

Wrocław Wrocław (; german: Breslau, or . ; Silesian German: ''Brassel'') is a city in southwestern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the River Oder in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Europe, rou ...

Olympic Stadium ''Olympic Stadium'' is the name usually given to the main stadium of an Olympic Games. An Olympic stadium is the site of the opening and closing ceremonies. Many, though not all, of these venues actually contain the words ''Olympic Stadium'' as ...

(with Sören Sjösten /

/ Per Tage Svensson) - 2nd - 30pts (4) *

Slaný Slaný (; german: Schlan) is a town in Kladno District in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 16,000 inhabitants. The historic town centre is well preserved and is protected by law as an urban monument zone. Administ ...

(with

/ Sören Sjösten / Göte Nordin /

) - Winner - 36pts (3) *

1963 Events January * January 1 – Bogle–Chandler case: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation scientist Dr. Gilbert Bogle and Mrs. Margaret Chandler are found dead (presumed poisoned), in bushland near the Lane Co ...

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, Stadion Wien (with

/ Per Olof Söderman / Göte Nordin /

) - Winner - 37pts (3) *

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 - In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patriarc ...

- Abensberg, Abensberg Stadion (with

/ Göte Nordin /

/ Sören Sjösten) - Winner - 34pts (7)

References

1929 births 2020 deaths Swedish speedway riders Belle Vue Aces riders Leicester Lions riders Wembley Lions riders People from Växjö Sportspeople from Kronoberg County {{Speedway-stub