TOMASZ Gollob went from zero to hero as Poland were crowned FIM Tobet Speedway World Cup champions for the third time in five years in a spine-tingling finish to the 2009 tournament at Leszno.
The showpiece final, delayed from Saturday night until Sunday morning due to adverse weather conditions, saw the out-of-sorts Gollob win Heat 25 for the Poles to overhaul long-time leaders Australia and land the Ove Fundin Trophy by just a solitary point.
It was the most remarkable finish to a SWC final since the tournament was revamped in 2001, and means that Australia have now gone seven years since claiming the coveted trophy.
There was a lengthy stoppage during Heat 20 (which was being re-run after Russia’s Denis Gizatullin was excluded) for a heavy downpour, and at that stage the Aussies, who had led since Heat 12, were out in front on 33 points, two ahead of Sweden and five in front of both Poland and Russia.
The Australians were unhappy with track conditions when the meeting finally resumed, but with four races left, they still held a five-point advantage over Poland and Sweden.
That lead extended to six points over Poland when Jason Crump brilliantly passed Krzysztof Kasprzak on the last lap to win Heat 22 - but ironically it also proved the inadvertent catalyst for a stunning home comeback.
Though tactical joker Jaroslaw Hampel was overhauled by Sweden’s Antonio Lindback in Heat 23, his four points to the under-the-weather Davey Watt’s one meant that the difference between Australia and Poland was trimmed to three.
The talismanic Hampel then came out again to win Heat 24, with Troy Batchelor muscled out on the first lap to finish last, and Poland and Australia were level on 41 points apiece going into a tense last-heat decider.
Gollob, who had been jeered by the Polish fans after scoring only three points from four rides and finishing last in both his previous outings, chose to use Kasprzak’s bike and went off the inside gate. Off gate two for the Aussies was Leszno legend Adams, a rider who had spent 15 years with the host club in the Polish League.
When the tapes went up, it was Gollob who exploded into the lead and he rode the perfect line on an unfamiliar machine to keep Adams at bay and bring the house down for a partisan Polish crowd.
A fiercely-competitive meeting saw both Sweden, who briefly led in the early stages, and surprise qualifiers Russia use their tactical jokers to stay in contention.
The emerging Russians, who mustered only four points from the first eight races, played an excellent game of catch-up, with the richly-gifted Emil Sayfutdinov winning for six points in Heat 11, and they briefly got their noses ahead of Sweden and Poland.
Sweden’s Andreas Jonsson also bagged the full six points in Heat 19 just prior to the rain stoppage, but the underachieving Scandinavians then tailed off as Poland and Australia went down to the wire in a compelling climax to a wonderful week of World Cup speedway.
POLAND 44: Jaroslaw Hampel 18, Krzysztof Kasprzak 10, Adrian Miedzinski 7, Tomasz Gollob 6, Piotr Protasiewicz 3.
AUSTRALIA 43: Leigh Adams 12, Jason Crump 12, Chris Holder 10, Davey Watt 5, Troy Batchelor 4.
SWEDEN 36: Andreas Jonsson 11, Fredrik Lindgren 9, Antonio Lindback 7, David Ruud 5, Jonas Davidsson 4.
RUSSIA 35: Emil Sayfutdinov 18, Grigory Laguta 9, Renat Gafurov 7, Roman Povazhny 1, Denis Gizatullin 0.
