Holder and Aussies lose out to Poland in last-heat final blow (From Thisisdorset)

Holder and Aussies lose out to Poland in last-heat final blow

2:49pm Sunday 19th July 2009 in

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PIRATES star Chris Holder and his Australia team-mates suffered last-heat heartache as Poland dramatically snatched the World Cup out of their grasp at Leszno today.

Tomasz Gollob, riding one of Krzysztof Kasprzak’s bikes, beat Leigh Adams in a tense heat 25 to give Poland victory by one point over the Australians in the final.

Poland, six points behind the Aussies with only three races to go, finished with 44 points, followed by Australia (43), Sweden (36) and Russia (35).

Holder , who impressed to grab 10 points, told Sky Sports: “We didn’t win so it sucks.

“We were going so good. It was tough all the way, although it was so close.

“We tried our best but it wasn’t good enough.”

Holder said he had no complaints about the last six heats being run after a 90 minute plus break following rain and intensive work to get the track raceable again.

He said: “If we had been in their (Sweden, Poland and Russia’s) position and it rained, we would have wanted to carry on the meeting.

“We weren’t quite good enough. To get beaten in the last race was tough. It hurts.

“I had a good series but it doesn’t mean anything to me if we didn’t win.

“I don’t know. We’ll just have to look to next year now.”

Holder popped out of gate one to take the lead going into the first bend in heat four, but Andreas Jonsson swept outside him to go on and take the chequered flag, with the Australian bagging a good second in the wet circuit conditions.

Poole’s spearhead was outgated by Piotr Protasiewicz in heat 10, but Holder roared outside the Pole off the second bend and down the back straight to claim Australia’s second successive race win as they began to look more at home on a quickly drying track.

Holder cut back brilliantly on the first corner of heat 13 after being left trailing in fourth place out of the tapes to blast inside Antonio Lindback, Grigory Laguta and Kasprzak and power on to take victory.

It was Australia’s fourth chequered flag in five races and, combined with a mid-meeting slump by Poland, consolidated Holder’s side’s lead at that stage.

He was squeezed out on the first and second corner and trailed in last in heat 17 when Hampel took the chequered flag and was followed past the finish line by Renat Gafurov and Fredrik Lindgren.

There was a break of over 90 minutes between the original staging of heat 20 and the re-run after Denis Gizatullin had fallen, due to rain and intensive work on the track, which had taken a lot of water.

Australia team manager Craig Boyce, the Pirates legend and club all-time leading points scorer, told Sky Sports he thought “it was a crazy sport” after an FIM Jury decision was taken to allow the meeting to carry on following the hold up.

The Aussies had led with 33 points before the enforced break, followed by Sweden (31), Poland (28) and Russia (28).

Even Pirates asset Kasprzak labelled the track “dangerous” after he had won the first race following the re-start.

But it didn’t stop Holder tucking in behind Emil Sayfutdinov for a good second place in heat 21 as he finished with 10 points and restored Australia’s lead to five points.

Then Hampel grabbed seven points, four as a tactical joker behind Lindback in race 23, in the run-in as Poland brought the scores level at 41-41 between them and Australia going into the final race.

In a nail-biting finale, an up until then out-of-sorts Gollob, riding Kasprzak’s bike, outgated Adams in the last-heat decider to storm on and take the chequered flag and claim overall victory to send a big Polish crowd into raptures.

The meeting had taken a mammorth four and a half hours to complete, with a bumper partisan Polish crowd and a live Sky audience rewarded for their patience with a thrilling final twist to a superb week of World Cup racing.

World Cup final, Leszno, Poland Sweden 36: 1 Jonas Davidsson (0-1-2-1-0) 4, 2 Fredrik Lindgren (3-3-2-1-) 9, 3 Antonio Lindback (1-2-0-1-3) 7, 4 Andreas Jonsson (3-0-1-6^-1) 11, 5 David Ruud (3-0-1-1-0) 5. Team manager: Tobias Johansson.

Australia 43: 1 Davey Watt (2-1-0-1-1) 5, 2 Troy Batchelor (0-1-1-2-0) 4, 3 Leigh Adams (2-3-3-2-2) 12, 4 Chris Holder (2-3-3-0-2) 10, 5 Jason Crump (2-2-2-3-3) 12. Team manager: Craig Boyce.

Russia 35: 1 Renat Gafurov (1-0-3-2-0-1) 7, 2 Emil Sayfutdinov (2-2-6^-3-2-3) 18, 3 Roman Povazhny (0-1-0) 1, 4 Denis Gizatullin (0-0-fell-fell exc) 0, 5 Grigory Laguta (1-exc unfair riding-2-3-1-2) 9. Team manager: Oleg Volochov.

Poland 44: 1 Krzysztof Kasprzak (3-1-1-3-2) 10, 2 Piotr Protasiewicz (1-2-fell exc-0) 3, 3 Jarek Hampel (3-3-2-3-4^-3) 18, 4 Tomasz Gollob (1-2-0-0-3) 6, Adrian Miedzinski (exc unfair riding-3-1-2-1) 7. Team manager: Marek Cieslak.

Referee: Istvan Darago (Hungary).

Ht 1: Kasprzak, Watt, Gafurov, Davidsson (0-2-1-3).

Ht 2: Lindgren, Sayfutdinov, Protasiewicz, Batchelor (3-2-3-4).

Ht 3: (re-run) Hampel, Adams, Lindback, Povazhny (4-4-3-7).

Ht 4: Jonsson, Holder, Gollob, Gizatullin (7-6-3-8).

Ht 5: (re-run) Ruud, Crump, Laguta, Miedzinski (excluded unfair riding), (10-8-4-8).

Ht 6: Hampel, Crump, Davidsson, Gizatullin (11-10-4-11).

Ht 7: (re-run) Lindgren, Gollob, Watt, Laguta (excluded unfair riding), (14-11-4-13).

Ht 8: Miedzinski, Lindback, Batchelor, Gafurov (16-12-4-16).

Ht 9: Adams, Sayfutdinov, Kasprzak, Jonsson (16-15-6-17).

Ht 10: Holder, Protasiewicz, Provazhny, Ruud (16-18-7-19).

Ht 11: Sayfutdinov^ (tactical joker, double points), Davidsson, Batchelor, Gollob (18-19-13-19).

Ht 12: Adams, Lindgren, Miedzinski, Gizatullin (fell), (20-22-13-20).

Ht 13: Holder, Laguta, Kasprzak, Lindback (20-25-15-21).

Ht 14: (re-run) Gafurov, Crump, Jonsson, Protasiewicz (fell excluded), (21-27-18-21).

Ht 15: Sayfutdinov, Hampel, Ruud, Watt (22-27-21-23).

Ht 16: Laguta, Adams, Davidsson, Protasiewicz (23-29-24-23).

Ht 17: Hampel, Gafurov, Lindgren, Holder (24-29-26-26).

Ht 18: Crump, Sayfutdinov, Lindback, Gollob (25-32-28-26).

Ht 19: Jonsson^ (tactical joker, double points), Miedzinski, Watt, Povazhny (31-33-28-28).

Ht 20: (re-run) Kasprzak, Batchelor, Ruud, Gizatullin (fell excluded), (32-35-28-31).

Ht 21: Sayfutdinov, Holder, Miedzinski, Davidsson (32-37-31-32).

Ht 22: Crump, Kasprzak, Laguta, Lindgren (32-40-32-34).

Ht 23: Lindback, Hampel^ (tactical joker, double points), Watt, Gafurov (35-41-32-38).

Ht 24: Hampel, Laguta, Jonsson, Batchelor (36-41-34-41).

Ht 25: Gollob, Adams, Gafurov, Ruud (36-43-35-44).