Batchelor claims Oz has plenty of unknown talent (From Swindon Advertiser)

Batchelor claims Oz has plenty of unknown talent

6:00am Wednesday 13th February 2013 in Sport By Andy Warren

AUSTRALIAN champion Troy Batchelor believes there is a wealth of unknown talent in his homeland ready to be tapped into by clubs in Europe.

The 25-year-old Robins target wrapped up his first national crown with a clean-sweep of the three rounds in January, beating a mixture of established stars and up and coming talent in the process.

While the majority of the senior championship field had ridden in Britain at Premier League level at least, Batchelor believes there are some promising youngsters coming through lower down the Australian system ready to take over from the likes of the now retired Jason Crump and Leigh Adams.

Young riders Down Under have to travel thousands of miles around their homeland simply to compete to earn themselves a career, and Batchelor believes his country deserve a lot of credit for the talent they manage to produce.

“Obviously Jason (Crump) and Leigh (Adams) have now finished their careers, but there are some great riders out there and some who people in Europe haven’t heard of too,” he said.

“For the amount of tracks and the amount of racing there is out in Australia we have a lot of riders coming through, almost from nowhere “England has everything and as many tracks as you could want and opportunities, but it is not quite like that in Australia, but we have a lot coming through which is great for the country.

“In Australia you have to drive a long way just to get to a track, in the Australian Championship we went to Melbourne which is five hours, and then from there to Sydney which is another six hours.

“There is a lot of driving just to get to some tracks, but despite that there are some great young riders coming through who I am sure will be in England soon.”

Batchelor’s Elite League future remains unclear, with parent club Peterborough continuing to hold out for a full transfer while the Robins are keen to bring the rider back to Blunsdon for a second successive loan spell.