Crump third in world speedway title

All the planets have aligned for Tomasz Gollob in 2010. Not only did the 39-year-old Polish megastar manage to clinch the world speedway title after 16 years of trying in the penultimate round, his timing was impeccable.

That’s because last Wednesday, Gollob broke his ankle in a motocross crash, which forced him to pull out of the final round in Poland last Saturday night as the pain got the better of him.

If the injury had occurred before the second last round, either his countryman Jaroslaw Hampel or Aussie Jason Crump could well have collected the 2010 silverware instead.

But it wasn’t to be, and the major issue to be resolved on October 9 was who would finish second in the championship: Hampel or Crump.

Well, that one was a fizzer, with both riders well off the game and finishing with meagre 6pt scores, which meant Hampel kept intact his 2pt buffer over Crump to claim that prize.

Crump’s compatriot, rookie Chris Holder, finished a gutsy eighth overall in the championship, which guarantees him automatic qualification into next year’s battle. The highlight of Holder’s year was victory in the British GP.

Meanwhile, Crump will now check in for more surgery to the left arm he first injured last year, and he should be back to somewhere near full fitness before the start of the 2011 campaign.

The final meeting was won by Sweden’s Andreas Jonsson, who passed British champion Chris Harris to win the gold, while wildcard Janusz Kolodziej reached his second final in as many world speedway outings and picked up the bronze. Rune Holta finished fourth in the final to secure fourth overall in the standings.

American Greg Hancock finished the season in fifth.

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.