KLINDT, Nicolai

DATE OF BIRTH: 29 December 1988, Outrup, Vestjylland, Denmark.

BRITISH CAREER: (2008-10) Wolverhampton; (2011) Swindon, (2012) Wolverhampton.

MAJOR HONOURS: Danish Under-19 Champion: 2006; Danish Under-21 Champion: 2006, 2008; European Under-19 Champion: 2007.

CLUB HONOUR: League Championship winner: 2009 [Wolverhampton].

ADDITIONAL INFO: Missed the start of the 2011 Elite League season after his release from Wolverhampton because of the points limit.

Klindt then joined Swindon and proved to be a hugely popular rider to the extent that he won their rider of the year award.

The Dane faced a tough decision over whether to stay at the Abbey Stadium or return to his parent club and when he was offered a 2012 deal by the Parrys International Wolves he decided to make his return to Monmore Green, saying he is a better rider for the experience of riding at Swindon.

Klindt was unveiled as a Wolverhampton signing on 28 August 2007. The hotly-rated Dane had been linked with Poole and Peterborough but, after spending a day with team manager Peter Adams, he agreed to join the Black Country side. Of course, he had previously ridden in the Wolverhampton side as a guest in the season-opening challenge at Sheffield on 15 March, when he scored 4 points in a narrow 46-44 defeat.

Klindt subsequently appeared at Monmore Green on 15 October, when he participated in the Banks’s Olympique, scoring 5 points and generally looked a fine prospect in a meeting that was won by Fredrik Lindgren.

His Wolves debut occurred a week later, on 22 October, when he was part of the side that defeated Birmingham 55-38 in the first leg of the BBC West Midland Shield. Two days later, he notched 4 points as the Monmore men forced a 45-45 in the return match at Perry Barr Stadium to take victory on aggregate.

Prior to that, there was glory for the Danish youngster on the world stage, when he took victory in the final of the European Under-19 Championship at Częstochowa, Poland on 19 August. The meeting saw him race to a 14-point haul to finish ahead of Jurica Pavlić and Filip Šitera on the rostrum. He also battled through to the final of the European Championship, scoring 5 points in the big event at Wiener-Neustadt, Austria on 29 September.

The Dane had first appeared in the UK as a sixteen-year-old in 2005, carding a 5-point tally in the Young Guns Championship at Poole on 3 August. He went on to ride in the Scottish Open at Edinburgh, where he accrued a fine 7 points.

Club honours came his way when he helped Fredericia to the Division One Championship in Denmark. And, in the World Under-21 Team Cup Final, he registered 5 points as Denmark finished in third position, behind winners Poland and second placed Sweden.

In 2006, he again appeared for Denmark in the final of the World Under-21 Team Cup and gave a brilliant display to top-score with 12 points, as his nation replicated their third place finish of the season before, behind Poland and Sweden. Klindt took victory in the Danish Under-21 Championship at Holstebro on 12 August in a meeting that was curtailed by heavy rain.

He had been due to face Patrick Hougaard, Kenneth Hansen and Klaus Jacobsen in the ‘A’ Final to determine the outcome, however, a crash in the preceding ‘B’ Final brought the event to a premature end. Klindt was deservedly declared the Champion because he had topped the scoring in the qualifying heats on 14 points. The year also saw Klindt make another trip to Britain, when he represented the Rest of the World in a challenge match at Swindon on 19 October.

The young Danish star is certainly a rider for the future and is tipped by many to be a Grand Prix regular in the coming years. He represented Wolverhampton for a second full season in 2009 and another term of progression culminated in the Black Country side scooping the Elite League Championship after defeating Swindon in the Play-Off final. And, at the end of November, his efforts were rewarded when the Wolves’ management named him in their starting side for 2010.

Klindt missed Wolverhampton’s Knock-Out Cup derby clash versus Coventry at Monmore Green on 19 July as he was still suffering from a shoulder injury sustained nine-days previously when riding in Poland and had raced through the pain barrier in the interim.

The day following the match against the Bees, he visited laser treatment specialist Brian Simpson in a bid to speed up the recovery process. And, having successfully come through the session, he quickly returned to Wolves’ line-up in an away league match at Peterborough on 22 July.

His season was to conclude early, however, after representing the side in a double-header against Eastbourne (Knock-Out Cup) and Swindon (Elite League) at Monmore Green on 11 October. This was because he checked in for surgery on his troublesome shoulder in his home country two days later. It had been causing him problems for a while and had clearly affected his performances on a bike. He had completed thirty-nine meetings for the club and, having totalled 265 points, achieved a solid 6.91 average.

On 13 December, Wolverhampton announced that they had released Klindt from their team plans for 2011. The rider was keen to continue racing in England and, as such, the West Midlands outfit alerted other teams to his availability. It was a tough decision for the Monmore Green club to make, as the rider had shown plenty of potential and enjoyed a solid 2010 campaign.

Following early-season problems at Swindon, the Wiltshire club announced the double signing of Klindt and fellow Dane Jesper B. Monberg on 17 April; the incoming duo took the place of the injured Grzegorz Zengota and his Polish compatriot, Tomasz Chrzanowski, who had struggled for points in the opening matches of the campaign.