Denmark captured an exhilarating Speedway World Cup final, as they beat Australia by just three points to win the title.

It was the Danes' first world crown since 2008, but their win was not confirmed until the final heat as Niels Kristian Iversen finished ahead of Jason Crump.

The meeting, which was under threat from rain early on, ended in dramatic fashion as the Joker rule emerged in controversial circumstances.

A team can play their Joker and earn double points if they go six points behind - and Australia looked to be heading that way in Heat 16 - but Nicki Pedersen shut-off his throttle just before the line and allowed Crump past, which at the time kept the gap to five points.

The following heat saw similar actions, with Mikkel B Jensen shutting off whilst in second and Watt did the same to come last - and that meant Australia could use the joker in the next heat.

Joker

Chris Holder took that in Heat 18 and won, and those six points closed the gap to just one point - but Denmark made no mistake in the final two heats.

In Heat 19 Michael Jepsen Jensen produced a brilliant ride to keep Holder behind him, which meant Australia needed a two-point swing in the final heat.

Crump came out for the Aussies, but he could not make the gate and he was relegated to last with Iversen taking third - which was enough for the win.

Pedersen praise

Denmark were solid all evening with Iversen and Jepsen Jensen top scoring with 11, but they did not run a last all evening which was the key to their win.

Australia, who had recalled Darcy Ward, just could not provide back-up to top-two Holder and Crump, and Davey Watt's mere three-point haul proved costly.

Russia improved as the night went on and claimed third place and the final place on the podium with number one Emil Sayfutdinov the top-scorer in the whole meeting with 17 points.

Hosts Sweden were hugely disappointing and they were a virtual two-man team with Andreas Jonsson and Freddie Lindgren scoring nearly all their points.

Delight

But it was Denmark who return to the top of the world and Nicki Pedersen was delighted, telling Sky Sports: "It's amazing, what a team effort, we tried everything."

Niels Kristian Iversen added: "It is unbelievable, it is unreal - such a young team and we managed to do it, we had some luck."

Australia, who came so close last year, were denied again and their skipper Jason Crump said: "Chris did a great job in joker ride and then he and I didn't back it up in the last two.

"I am the captain of Australia speedway team and I am so proud of that and proud of the boys, nice to know there are some boys coming through."