Matej Ferjan (5 January 1977 – 22 May 2011) was 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 also rode for the Hungary national speedway team.

Career

Ferjan was born in Ljubljana, Slovenia. He was a five-time

Slovenian Individual Speedway Championship The Slovenian Individual Speedway Championship is a Motorcycle speedway championship held each year to determine the Slovenian national champion. It was first staged in 1978. Matej Žagar holds the record, winning 18 championships. Winners ...

winner (1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001) and a six-time Hungarian champion (2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009). In 1998, he won a third place in Individual U-21 World Championship. In 2004, he was second in the Individual European Championship. On 9 July 2000 he won the Continental Final, which formed part of the

2001 Speedway Grand Prix Qualification The 2001 Speedway Grand Prix Qualification or GP Challenge was a series of motorcycle speedway meetings used to determine the 12 riders that would qualify for the 2001 Speedway Grand Prix to join the other 10 riders that finished in the leading po ...

. He then secured a permanent ride in the

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 ...

and

2002 Speedway Grand Prix The 2002 Speedway Grand Prix was the 57th edition of the official World Championship and the eighth season in the Speedway Grand Prix era used to determine the Speedway World Champion. Event format The system first used in 1998 continued to be ...

s. He was also the first non Polish rider to win the Polish Criterium of Aces, winning in

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 ...

Death

On 22 May 2011 Ferjan was found dead in his van at the apartment block where he lived in

Gorzów Wielkopolski Gorzów Wielkopolski (; german: Landsberg an der Warthe) often abbreviated to Gorzów Wlkp. or simply Gorzów, is a city in western Poland, on the Warta river. It is the second largest city in the Lubusz Voivodeship with 120,087 inhabitants (Decemb ...

, Poland. His cause of death has been attributed to a blood clot in his leg.

Family

Ferjan had a son, Mark, born on 19 April 2004, and a daughter, Victoria.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ferjan, Matej 1977 births 2011 deaths Sportspeople from Ljubljana Slovenian speedway riders Hungarian speedway riders Belle Vue Aces riders Peterborough Panthers riders Poole Pirates riders Oxford Cheetahs riders

Career

Death

Family

See also

References