Rune Bertil Leopold Sörmander (29 November 1929 – 20 December 2020) was an international

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 clockwise, anti-clockwise laps of an oval circuit. The motorcycles are specialist machines that ...

rider from Sweden. He earned 66 caps for the

Sweden national speedway team The Sweden national speedway team are one of the major teams in international motorcycle speedway. History The Sweden speedway team has won the Speedway World Team Cup and Speedway World Cup on ten occasions and were a major force in the open ...

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. On 22 June 1952 he won the Continental Speedway Final, which formed part of the

1952 Individual Speedway World Championship The 1952 Individual Speedway World Championship was the seventh edition of the official World Championship to determine the world champion rider. Australian rider Jack Young became the first rider to win a second title (and the first to win t ...

. 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 championsh ...

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 Europ ...

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

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

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. His last season in Britain was with the

Leicester Hunters The Leicester Hunters were a motorcycle speedway team which operated from 1948 until 1962.Bamford, R & Jarvis J. (2001) ''Homes of British Speedway'', , p. 147-149 History Speedway had operated before the war at both Leicester Stadium and th ...

in 1957. In 1956, he toured South Africa before joining Stockholm Monarchs for a tour of Great Britain.

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 Estonian government-in-exile, government-in-exile in Oslo. * January 14 ** Marshal Josip Broz Tito ...

- London,

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium, currently branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE Limited, EE for sponsorship reasons, is an association football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Sta ...

- 11th - 5pts *

1957 Events January * January 1 – The Saarland joins West Germany. * January 3 – Hamilton Watch Company introduces the first electric watch. * January 5 – South African player Russell Endean becomes the first batsman to be Dismissal (cricke ...

- London, Wembley Stadium - 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 thir ...

- London Wembley Stadium - 13th - 4pts *

1959 Events January * January 1 – Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 – Soviet lunar probe Luna 1 is the first human-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reaches the ...

- London, Wembley Stadium - 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 * Janu ...

- London, Wembley Stadium - 12th - 5pts *

1961 Events January * January 1 – Monetary reform in the Soviet Union, 1961, Monetary reform in the Soviet Union. * January 3 ** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and cons ...

Malmö Malmö is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, sixth-largest city in Nordic countries, the Nordic region. Located on ...

Malmö Stadion Malmö Stadion, often known simply as Stadion before the construction of the new Stadion, Malmö, 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, p ...

- 8th - 7pts *

1962 The year saw the Cuban Missile Crisis, which is often considered the closest the world came to a Nuclear warfare, nuclear confrontation during the Cold War. Events January * January 1 – Samoa, Western Samoa becomes independent from Ne ...

- London, Wembley Stadium - 11th - 7pts

World Team Cup

Gothenburg Gothenburg ( ; ) is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, second-largest city in Sweden, after the capital Stockholm, and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated by the Kattegat on the west coast of Sweden, it is the gub ...

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 Ingemar Nygren (11 November 1929 – 13 February 2021) was a Swedish motorcycle speedway rider, who reached the finals of the Speedway World Championship five times. He earned 90 caps for the Sweden national speedway team. Career ...

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 Ch ...

Björn Knutson Björn Knutson commonly spelt Knutsson (born 27 April 1938 in Sweden) is a former motorcycle 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 Prin ...

) - Winner - 44pts (11) *

Wrocław Wrocław is a city in southwestern Poland, and the capital of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship. It is the largest city and historical capital of the region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the Oder River in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Eu ...

Olympic Stadium ''Olympic Stadium'' is the name usually given to the main stadium of an Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports ...

(with

Sören Sjösten Sören Willy Ernfrid Sjösten (12 December 1938 – April 1999) was Swedish motorcycle speedway rider. He earned 76 caps for the Sweden national speedway team. Life and career Sjösten was born on 12 December 1938. He won the world pairs cham ...

/ Ove Fundin /

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

Slaný Slaný (; ) is a town in Kladno District in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 17,000 inhabitants. The historic town centre is well preserved and is protected as an Cultural monument (Czech Republic)#Monument zones, ur ...

, Slaný Speedway Stadium (with Björn Knutson / Sören Sjösten /

Göte Nordin Göte Nordin (2 July 1935 – 21 November 2023) was a former motorcycle speedway rider from Sweden. He earned 45 caps for the Sweden national speedway team. Speedway career Nordin is a two times champion of Sweden, winning the Swedish Individ ...

/ Ove Fundin) - 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 Cove ...

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

, Stadion Wien (with Björn Knutson /

Per Olof Söderman Per Olof Söderman (born 29 October 1932) was a speedway rider from Sweden. During his racing career he was also known as Peo Söderman. He earned 44 caps for the Sweden national speedway team. Speedway career Söderman reached the final of ...

/ Göte Nordin / Ove Fundin) - 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 Patria ...

Abensberg Abensberg () is a town in the Lower Bavarian Districts of Germany, district of Kelheim (district), Kelheim, in Bavaria, Germany, lying around southwest of Regensburg, east of Ingolstadt, northwest of Landshut and north of Munich. It is situa ...

Abensberg Stadion The Wack Hofmeister Stadium formerly the Altes Stadion Abensberg (the Old Stadium) is a motorcycle speedway and association football stadium located slightly east of the centre of Abensberg in Germany. It hosts the speedway team MSC Abensberg ...

(with Björn Knutson / Göte Nordin / Ove Fundin / Sören Sjösten) - Winner - 34pts (7)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sormander, Rune 1929 births 2020 deaths Swedish speedway riders Belle Vue Aces riders Leicester Lions riders Wembley Lions riders Swedish expatriate speedway riders in England Sportspeople from Växjö