Jamie McCanney won his first round of the FIM World Enduro Championship for five years in the Košice region of Eastern Slovakia on Sunday.

He took several years out of the world championships when contesting Rallye Raid events, including two editions of the Dakar Rally in 2020 and 2021.

McCanney finished sixth overall in the EnduroGP class at Gelnica on Saturday, runner-up in E1 capacity, some 17 seconds behind Theopile Espinasse (Beta) of France.

On Sunday he went one better on his Fast Eddy Husqvarna to finish fifth in EnduroGP and first overall in E1, almost 29 seconds clear of the returning-from-injury double world champion Josep Garcia (KTM) of Spain.

McCanney was second British rider home on each occasion behind Steve Holcombe in what was by far Jamie’s best ride at world level since 2018. Holcombe won day one outright and was runner-up on Sunday behind Andrea Verona of Italy (Gas Gas).

Jed Etchells also had a brace of podium finishes in the junior class over the weekend with two second places overall behind fellow Fantic rider Albin Norrbin of Sweden.

Each of those were victories in J1 class for Etchells.

The series now has a three-month break before the final two rounds at the end of September/early October.

l The event was marred by the tragic death of a local Slovakian rider, Jaroslav Diro, in Friday’s evening’s Super Test at Gelnica.