SOMERSET Rebels number one, Brady Kurtz finished in an excellent fifth place in the first round of the World Under-21 Championship held in Lonigo, Italy, last night.

A tough opening ride saw him finish third behind Poland's Bartosz Zmarzlik and Dane Mikkel Michelsen (who were to go on and finish at the top of the final score-chart), which was followed up with another 3rd place in his 2nd outing, this time behind the other Polish representative, Pawel Przedpelski and Denmark's Anders Thomsen.

Kurtz rapidly moved up the standings with two wins in his 3rd and 4th rides, heat 12 seeing him head home the Danish duo of Mikkel Bech and Emil Grondal with Britain's Stefan Nielsen in fourth place, while in heat 16 he took the chequered flag ahead of Nikolaj Busk Jakobsen (who was to finish third overall), Swede Viktor Palovaara and meeting reserve Giorgio Trentin.

Kurtz's last ride in heat 20 saw him finish 2nd behind compatriot Max Fricke with Latvia's Andzejs Lebedev 3rd and the other meeting reserve, Ivan Garzaro 4th, he having come into the race after Nicolas Vincentin had been excluded from the initial running of the heat.

The 18 year-old's final 10 point tally saw him tie with 3 other rides on the same score, but Kurtz was eventually placed 5th overall on count-back.

"It was a great performance by Brady against a quality line-up," said Somerset team manager Garry May. 

"It will put him in good stead for the remaining two rounds, and I hope that the Somerset fans will turn out at the Oaktree Arena on Friday night for our match against Glasgow to give him the reception he deserves."

The other two rounds of the Championship are scheduled for Lubin (Poland) on 15th August and Pardubice (Czech Republic) on September 19.