GOLDEN AGE FOR POLAND?
Newly-crowned world champion Tomasz Gollob hopes the FIM Speedway Grand Prix series gold medal stays in Poland “for a while now” after collecting the sport’s biggest prize in Bydgoszcz on Saturday night.
The 39-year-old went into the FIM Bydgoszcz SGP of Poland with the title guaranteed after triumphing in Terenzano on September 25. This was fortunate for the Gorzow and Vastervik star, as he suffered a broken ankle in a motocross crash on Wednesday.
After extensive medical treatment, he was determined to race in his home town and stormed to victory in heat two. But Gollob’s engine seized in his second outing, before he pulled up in his third as the pain got the better of him and forced him to withdraw from the meeting.
He returned to the rostrum to milk the sold-out, 20,000-plus Polonia Stadium crowd’s applause and collect the gold medal he has been chasing for over two decades.
His fellow countryman Jaroslaw Hampel completed a special night for Polish speedway by beating former world champion Jason Crump to the silver medal.
The meeting was won by Bydgoszcz rider Andreas Jonsson, who passed British champion Chris Harris to win the gold, while wild card Janusz Kolodziej reached his second final in as many SGP outings and picked up the bronze. Rune Holta finished fourth in the final to secure fourth overall in the standings.
But the biggest Polish smile belonged to Gollob. Despite being barely able to stand, he was delighted to take his place atop the SGP series rostrum. It may have been 37 years since Poland last crowned a world champion, but Gollob hopes his country will not have to wait so long next time.
He said: “I have to admit it has been a hard season. It has been very, very hard. Congratulations to Crumpie and Jarek for the last year.
"They have very much put me under pressure over the 11 meetings we’ve had together.
“As you know, I had a little accident when I was training for this Grand Prix. I didn’t actually fall; the leg just didn’t make it.
“It’s broken so I’m very happy I managed to win in Italy and gather enough points to win the championship. That meant I didn’t have to suffer that much tonight. But I’m very sorry if I have disappointed anybody by not being able to take all my rides.
“I’ve done this for my people and I’ve done it for my country. I hope this medal will stay in our country for a while now and maybe for the next couple of years.
“When we were discussing who was going to be the champion in Vojens, I said it doesn’t matter who as long as they’re Polish. So thankfully it’s me and I’m very proud of that. I’ve waited for a long time and I’ve worked very, very hard to win this medal.”
It was also a very special night for British fans, who watched Chris Harris pick up his second straight silver medal.
He was leading from the tapes, but a superb pass by Polonia Stadium specialist Jonsson denied him his first gold since he won the British SGP at Cardiff in 2007.
Harris’ 13-point haul was enough to give him sixth place – his highest ever finish in the World Championship – and secure automatic qualification for next year’s series.
Bomber ended the season level on 107 points with American legend Greg Hancock in fifth, but the Californian finishes higher by virtue of the fact he qualified for the competition as world No.4, while Harris had the No.14 race jacket.
But the delighted Cornishman was still over the moon to achieve Britain’s best World Championship finish since Mark Loram won the title in 2000.
He said: “It would have been nice to be No.1 on that podium, but I made a slight mistake going into turn three in the final. I just left too big a hole for Andreas.
"The night didn’t start off good, but it finished well. I finished sixth in the world and to be the best Brit since Mark won it is very pleasing.”
FINAL WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS (AFTER 11 ROUNDS):1 Tomasz Gollob 166, 2 Jaroslaw Hampel 137, 3 Jason Crump 135, 4 Rune Holta 109, 5 Greg Hancock 107, 6 Chris Harris 107, 7 Kenneth Bjerre 106, 8 Chris Holder 96, 9 Andreas Jonsson 95, 10 Nicki Pedersen 91, 11 Fredrik Lindgren 87, 12 Hans Andersen 86, 13 Magnus Zetterstrom 74, 14 Tai Woffinden 49, 15 Emil Sayfutdinov 33, 16 Janusz Kolodziej 26, 17 Davey Watt 19, 18 Piotr Protasiewicz 13, 19 Thomas H Jonasson 8, 20 Adrian Miedzinski 6, 21 Antonio Lindback 6, 22 Niels Kristian Iversen 6, 23 Jurica Pavlic 5, 24 Scott Nicholls 4, 25 Matej Kus 3, 26 Leon Madsen 3, 27 Ludvig Lindgren 2, 28 Nicolai Klindt 1, 29 Artur Mroczka 1, 30 Linus Sundstrom 1, 31 Mattia Carpanese 1.
FIM BYDGOSZCZ SGP OF POLAND POINTS:1 Andreas Jonsson 17, 2 Chris Harris 13, 3 Janusz Kolodziej 14, 4 Rune Holta 12, 5 Nicki Pedersen 13, 6 Greg Hancock 12, 7 Fredrik Lindgren 11, 8 Piotr Protasiewicz 8, 9 Magnus Zetterstrom 7, 10 Hans Andersen 7, 11 Jason Crump 6, 12 Chris Holder 6, 13 Jaroslaw Hampel 6, 14 Tai Woffinden 4, 15 Kenneth Bjerre 4, 16 Tomasz Gollob 3, 17 Artur Mroczka 1, 18 Przemyslaw Pawlicki 0.
