Dougie Lampkin MBE celebrated his New Year honour by winning the first round of the new indoor world championship season at Sheffield Arena on Saturday -- but had to pull out all the stops.

He was pushed all the way by Marc Freixa from Spain who looked to have victory within his grasp, but Dougie staged a late fightback to remain unbeaten at Sheffield with seven victories from seven starts.

Before the start of the event Lampkin predicted the course would be the toughest yet and eveyone found the going tough. Dougie was the best of four qualifiers from the original seven man line up but a heavy crash from the highest point of a log section in the heats disrupted Lampkin's rhythm.

He double his penalty total in the final two hazards with a very uncharacteristic five penalties followed by a three pointer which was terrible by his own high standards.

Dougie allowed Freixa to seize the advantage from the first section in the final.

With just two sections remaining Dougie trailed by one-point and saw his chance as Freixa failed at the opening step in the penultimate hazard. Raising the stakes Dougie dropped just two marks while the other three riders collected fives, to lead by two with just one observed test, the high jump and two head to head races to go.

Lampkin remained faultless through the closing stages of the compeititon and won the speed event to win by four points.

He said: "That was the hardest of my seven victories at Sheffield - I am shattered but absolutely delighted. In the final, Marc put the pressure on me from the word go. I just had to dig deep to stay with him because he was riding so well.

"Last year, I was always in control but it was much, much tougher this time around," he said.

n Dougie (right) races to victory.