Polish icon Tomasz Gollob gave his hopes of winning a first-ever World Championship a massive boost, after topping the rostrum in the FIM Dig Deep Czech SGP on Saturday night.
Gollob left Prague‰Ûªs Marketa Stadium with 17 points to his name after defeating Gorzow team mate Nicki Pedersen, fellow countryman Jaroslaw Hampel and Swedish surprise package Magnus Zetterstrom in the final.
Gollob looked to be staring down the barrel of disappointment after taking third places his opening two outings. But he rallied with a victory in heat 12.
The Polish champion then produced the move of the night to blitz around the boards and pip Andreas Jonsson to the line in race 14. A second spot behind Jason Crump in heat 19 was then enough to fire him into the semis with eight points.
Gollob was involved in the night‰Ûªs major talking point in semi-final one when Jonsson fell as the world No.2 dived under him on lap one, turn three.
Despite television footage showing the 39-year-old had touched the Swede, Jonsson was excluded. Gollob went on to win the re-run and take the gold.
Even after a nightmare start to his meeting, the Bydgoszcz-born star‰Ûªs manager Thomas Gaszynski admits Gollob never lost hope.
He said: ‰ÛÏTomasz is the kind of guy who will never say ‰Û÷never‰Ûª. He has a never say die attitude. Even after his first two races weren‰Ûªt fantastic, he always had his head up and kept drilling away.
‰ÛÏMaking the semis is always our first priority. That‰Ûªs our bare minimum. From there, it was just a matter of a little luck. He made the final with a bit of luck, and in the final, he won it.‰Û
