POLAND’S DEDICATED SoN WIN

Polish under-21 captain Jakub Miskowiak dedicated his side’s 15th FIM Team Speedway Under-21 World Championship to injured star Wiktor Przyjemski as he joined Mateusz Cierniak in grabbing SoN2 gold in Vojens, Denmark on Friday July 29.

The Poles topped the podium in Denmark after winning a dramatic 2022 Grand Final ahead of Czech Republic, with Miskowiak taking the chequered flag in advance of Czech racer Jan Kvech.

Disaster struck for the Czech team halfway through the race when Petr Chlupac suffered mechanical problems, which saw him drop the all-important third place to Cierniak. A possible 5-4 victory and a first-ever speedway world team title for the Czech team became a 6-3 triumph for Poland.

The Poles have now won the FIM Team Speedway Under-21 crown nine years in a row and 15 times in 18 attempts.

But their victory was marred by an ugly first-turn crash for Przyjemski, who left the track in an ambulance with damage to his finger.

Miskowiak and Cierniak stepped up in his absence, and 2021 World Under-21 Champion Miskowiak, who scored 15 points, dedicated the gold medals to his fallen colleague. He said: “I am feeling very good. It is a fantastic feeling. We won this gold medal for Wiktor.”

Team manager Rafal Dobrucki confirmed Przyjemski is heading home for treatment as he hailed his all-conquering side.

He said: “At the moment, Wiktor is on the way to Poland to go to hospital there. He has a problem with his finger, but it is not very dangerous and I hope he comes back to us very quickly.

“As for our result, what can I say? We are glad we have got another gold medal. The guys had a really hard job today, especially in the pits.

“We were not very satisfied after practice. We had a lot of problems with the setup because this track is very difficult – it changes all the time. But we are really happy.”

Cierniak leads the SGP2 standings after winning the opening round of the FIM Speedway Under-21 World Championship in Prague on May 27. He was initially listed as Poland’s number three reserve rider, but he was delighted to play a key role in his side’s victory, topping the scorechart on 17.

He said: “I feel good because I had the chance to fight for this on the track. Today’s meeting was very hard. But me and Jakub gave it full power and this result is very good.”

Czech skipper Jan Kvech helped the senior side to second place in FIM SON Semi-Final 2 on Thursday night to secure their place in Saturday’s FIM SON Final. He was delighted to land SoN2 silver and now hopes to crown a big week with an FIM SON Final flourish against Denmark, Australia, Finland, Poland, Sweden and Great Britain.

He said: “We are very happy. It was a good result for Czech speedway because we are in the Final of the senior SoN and today we took second place in SoN2. We will be going for another good result tomorrow.”

Great Britain captain Tom Brennan scored an heroic 20 of Lions’ 28 points and battled hard with Kvech in the Grand Final Qualifier, which the Czechs won 6-3, forcing the Young Lions to settle for the bronze medals. But the 2021 FIM SoN world champion was content to see his country claim a fifth FIM Team Speedway Under-21 medal in as many years.

He said: “We obviously wanted to go one better, if not two better. Just to get a medal was great. We have all worked really, really hard for this.

“I want to say a massive thank you to our team manager Neil Vatcher. He tried to push us in the pits as much as possible and helped everyone with setup. Everybody worked really, really hard for this and I am very, very proud of it.

“For me to have a good night is great, but it’s all about the team. Drew Kemp did a fantastic job as well. Leon Flint was on standby. He didn’t get a ride, but he was there ready and we had his encouragement.

“For us, it was great to get third place. That’s fantastic. These boys will have to fight harder without me next year because I will be too old to race in this, but hopefully they can go that next step.”

Great Britain defends its FIM SON world title in Saturday’s Final at the legendary Vojens Speedway Center, which sees hosts Denmark, Poland, Australia, Sweden, Czech Republic and Finland all bid to win the competition for the first time.

FIM SPEEDWAY OF NATIONS – SoN2 SCORES:

1 POLAND 36: 1 Wiktor Przyjemski 4, 2 Jakub Miskowiak 15, 3 Mateusz Cierniak 17.

2 CZECH REPUBLIC 29: 1 Jan Kvech 18, 2 Petr Chlupac 11, 3 Matous Kamenik 0.

3 GREAT BRITAIN 28: 1 Tom Brennan 20, 2 Drew Kemp 8, 3 Leon Flint 0.

4 LATVIA 28: 1 Francis Gusts 22, 2 Ricards Ansviesulis 6, 3 Ernests Matjusonoks 0.

5 DENMARK 26: 1 Benjamin Basso 21, 2 Kevin Juhl Pedersen 5, 3 Jonas Knudsen 0.