Peter Ljung, the rider who can't get into the Eastbourne Eagles team, won the World Cup for Sweden with a sensational display.

Ljung conjured up a ride straight out of fantasy land to beat a quartet of Grand Prix riders headed by Eastbourne ace Nicki Pedersen in the penultimate race of Saturday night's final in Denmark.

It was an unbelievable effort by the 20-year-old who had Pedersen, Lee Richardson, Leigh Adams and Tomasz Bajerski chasing his back wheel as he turned the speedway world on its head.

It put Sweden, who had trailed defending champions Australia by 13 points with 18 of the 25 heats gone and were trounced by Great Britain two nights earlier, in front with one race left.

Ljung's shock win, his second of the night, meant that Peter Karlsson's second place in the final heat decider, with Australia's Jason Crump back in fourth, was more than enough to clinch the world title.

Yet Ljung should never have been riding. He was only in the Swedish team because world champion Tony Rickardsson was ruled out with concussion.

On the face of it, Rickardsson's absence should have scuppered any notion of a Swedish triumph.

They only scraped into the final in front of the Czech Republic via Thursday's last chance race-off, and even with Rickardsson they were beaten by Poland in the qualifying rounds.

While Ljung celebrated, the Aussies, champions for the last two years, were left stunned, Pedersen's Denmark had to settle for third place in front of Poland, and Great Britain's hopes finally bit the dust.

After flying high en route to the final, the Eastbourne duo of David Norris and Dean Barker had little to show for their efforts on a Vojens track which did them no favours.

Norris had two second-place finishes in the five-man races in his total of eight points, while the best Barker could manage was a couple of thirds on his way to six points.

Lee Richardson was Britain's top scorer with 14, courtesy of eight points from one ride when he was used as a tactical joker. It was Britain's only race win of the night in 25 heats.

The Brits never recovered from a nightmare start which saw them pick up only eight points in the first eight races, six of which were scored by Norris.

Australia must still be wondering how they missed out on a hat-trick of victories. Crump and Adams won their first seven races between them and were seemingly untouchable as the Aussies steadily pulled away.

They were nine points ahead after 15 heats, 11 in front through 17 heats and 13 points clear of their nearest challengers after 18. The turning point came in heat 19 when Mikael Max Karlsson won his tactical joker ride, cutting the deficit to five points at a stroke.

By heat 23, Sweden had caught Australia, but with Adams and Crump riding in the last two races you would have got short odds on the Aussies winning from there. But then no one gave Ljung a shout.

The young Swede, hailed as a future champion when he joined Eastbourne at the start of the season, was dropped almost straight away and finally axed from the Elite League squad after a brief second spell in the shake-up which brought Pedersen to Arlington.

While Ljung couldn't hack it even at reserve for Eagles, he has made an impact on the international stage, winning a world under-21 semi-final. But nothing approaching this.

Swedish team manager Tony Olsson picked out Ljung. "All the team did well, but he scored vital points. To do what we did without Tony is unbelievable. A few days ago, we were almost out, now we are world champions."

Sweden: Mikael Max Karlsson 25, Andreas Jonsson 12, Peter Ljung 10, Peter Karlsson 10, David Ruud 5. Total 62.

Australia: Jason Crump 17, Leigh Adams 15, Todd Wiltshire 15, Ryan Sullivan 10, Jason Lyons 0. Total 57.

Denmark: Nicki Pedersen 21, Charlie Gjedde 12, Bjarne Pedersen 9, Hans Andersen 7, Ronni Pedersen 4. Total 53.

Poland: Tomasz Gollob 20, Jarek Hampel 13, Sebastian Ulamek 6, Tomasz Bajerski 6, Peter Protasiewicz 4. Total 49.

Great Britain: Lee Richardson 14, Scott Nicholls 13, David Norris 8, Dean Barker 6, Gary Havelock 3. Total 44.