Polish star Jaroslaw Hampel hailed his side for holding their nerve as they retained the FIM PGE Polska Grupa Energetyczna Speedway World Cup in Vojens on Sunday afternoon.
SWC legend Tomasz Gollob lifted the Ove Fundin Trophy for the fourth time after his side bagged 44 points to pip Denmark, who scored 39, to the gold. Sweden claimed the bronze with 35 points after edging Team Great Britain off the podium by two points in a last-race decider. The Poles were tipped as huge favourites going into the competition, but Denmark had no intention of going down without a scrap on home shale. The two sides traded the lead as the meeting headed to its climax and were level at 39 points apiece with two races left.
But World Championship challengers Jaroslaw Hampel and Tomasz Gollob saw their team home with second and first places respectively, while Danish duo Hans Andersen and Kenneth Bjerre both finished last. With a crippling weight of expectation on Poland‰Ûªs shoulders, Hampel was ecstatic his team stood the heat and won the nation‰Ûªs first world team title on foreign soil since 1996.
‰ÛÏThere was a good team spirit and we proved we could win everywhere and be world champions," Hampel said "There was a lot of pressure and we felt that. It‰Ûªs always very hard to race under pressure. But kept our nerves and tried to concentrate heat by heat. Everything has finished well for us.‰Û
