Gollob wins world speedway title

Poland’s Tomasz Gollob is the 2010 world speedway champion, and the 39-year-old has apologised to his countrymen for keeping them waiting so long.

Gollob became Poland’s first world champion since Jerzy Szczakiel in 1973 when he won the Italian Speedway Grand Prix in Terenzano on September 25.

His dream came true when Chris Harris beat Jaroslaw Hampel to second spot in the second semi-final, which end the latter’s chances of winning the championship.

But Gollob refused to relax even after ending his quest to reach the shale sport’s summit. He defeated Harris, Greg Hancock and Nicki Pedersen to lift the Italian SGP title for the second year running.

Three-time world champion, Aussie Jason Crump, endured his worst result of the season, taking only 7pts from the event. An engine failure added to Crump's woes as he struggled to find the right setup on the hard, slick track.

Crump’s fellow Australian Chris Holder also finished with 7pts.

Gollob is a sporting megastar in his homeland and few riders have ever carried such a crippling weight of expectation on their shoulders.

So the four-time Speedway World Cup winner was over the moon to end his nation’s agonising wait for an individual world champion.

“I’m very happy. It’s the world championship for me after 20 years of trying to win it. I have to thank me team and my sponsors for all their work,” he said. “It has taken much work to get here. The co-operation in the whole team has been fantastic.

“I’m sorry it has taken 20 years for me to win this. It has been 37 years that Poland had to wait.

“Twelve years ago in Wroclaw I had that big crash and the World Championship didn’t go to me. It went to Tony Rickardsson. But tonight is different – tonight is my night.”

Crump had no excuses for his underwhelming performance.

"It just wasn't a good day, the bottom line is I rode badly and didn't do much right tonight," Crump said. "We were okay in practice, the track wasn't good but we adapted and got the setup right. Then it rained and it looked like it was going to be soft, but it was actually quite hard.  I made all the wrong choices at the wrong times.

"I take my hat off to Tomasz, as he thoroughly deserved this title. I couldn't compete with him this year he was one step ahead of me the whole time.

“It is an absolute credit to him to be winning his first world championship at 39. It just shows if you are fit and want something bad enough you can do it.”

Crump confirmed he would undergo surgery to repair nerve damage to his left arm after the final GP in Poland on October 9.

FIM NICE ITALIAN SGP POINTS: 1 Tomasz Gollob 22, 2 Chris Harris 18, 3 Greg Hancock 14, 4 Nicki Pedersen 11, 5 Jaroslaw Hampel 10, 6 Rune Holta 9, 7 Andreas Jonsson 8, 8 Hans Andersen 8, 9 Jason Crump 7, 10 Chris Holder 7, 11 Magnus Zetterstrom 7, 12 Davey Watt 6, 13 Fredrik Lindgren 6, 14 Tai Woffinden 6, 15 Kenneth Bjerre 4, 16 Mattia Carpanese 1, 17 Mattia Cavicchioli 0, 18 Andrea Maida 0.

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP (AFTER 10 ROUNDS): 1 Tomasz Gollob 163, 2 Jaroslaw Hampel 131, 3 Jason Crump 129, 4 Kenneth Bjerre 102, 5 Rune Holta 97, 6 Greg Hancock 95, 7 Chris Harris 94, 8 Chris Holder 90, 9 Hans Andersen 79, 10 Andreas Jonsson 78, 11 Nicki Pedersen 78, 12 Fredrik Lindgren 76, 13 Magnus Zetterstrom 67, 14 Tai Woffinden 45, 15 Emil Sayfutdinov 33, 16 Davey Watt 19, 17 Janusz Kolodziej 12, 18 Thomas H Jonasson 8, 19 Adrian Miedzinski 6, 20 Antonio Lindback 6, 21 Niels-Kristian Iversen 6, 22 Piotr Protasiewicz 5, 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 Linus Sundstrom 1, 30 Mattia Carpanese 1.