Team Poland emerged victorious at the Reall Tiger European Team Speedway Championship Grand Final held at the track in Gdańsk. The White-and-Reds outpaced Denmark, Sweden, and Ukraine. This marks the fourth consecutive European Team Championship title for our national team.
The event at the Zbigniew Podlecki Stadium drew significant attention from fans, who witnessed an exciting competition. Surprisingly, it was Sweden who set the pace early on, thanks to strong performances by Timo Lahti and Victor Palovaara, taking the lead after two heats, while Poland had scored only one point.
Fortunately, Patryk Dudek and Bartosz Zmarzlik soon gave the signal to attack, but the Danes quickly woke up as well – thanks to Michael Jepsen Jensen, Rasmus Jensen, Mikkel Michelsen – who all know the Gdańsk track well – and Frederik Jakobsen, took the lead after eight heats.
In the third series of heats, both Poland and the Danes scored the same number of points, while Sweden fell out of the race for first place due to significant losses.
The fourth series proved decisive for the gold medal. Bartosz Zmarzlik and Patryk Dudek won their respective races, while Jepsen Jensen and Michelsen failed to score. Poland’s lead increased to five points, and Rafał Dobrucki’s squad never looked back.
Better setups in the final series allowed the Poles to seal the overall victory. The only additional joy came for Timo Lahti, who, by crossing the finish line first in the last race, claimed the trophy for winning the Zbigniew Podlecki Memorial.
– We executed our plan, even though we had some issues earlier in the tournament. That’s the nature of speedway these days — you have to be ready for anything. The track certainly wasn’t our advantage today, but we drew the right conclusions at the right time and managed to stabilize the situation – emphasized Rafał Dobrucki, the national team coach, who received the European Team Championship trophy from Gdańsk Deputy Mayor Piotr Borawski.
Results of Reall Tiger European Team Speedway Championship Grand Final
I. Polska 50
5. Przemysław Pawlicki 10 (2,1,1,3,3)
6. Piotr Pawlicki 9 (0,1,3,3,2)
7. Bartosz Zmarzlik 12 (3,3,3,3,-)
8. Patryk Dudek 12 (3,2,2,3,2)
18. Wiktor Przyjemski 7 (3,3,1)
II. Dania 43
9. Rasmus Jensen 6 (1,2,1,-,2)
10. Frederik Jakobsen 12 (2,3,3,1,3)
11. Michael Jepsen Jensen 13 (3,3,3,0,2)
12. Mikkel Michelsen 8 (1,2,2,0,3)
19. Bastian Pedersen 3 (2,1)
III. Szwecja 30
1. Philip Hellstrom-Bangs 3 (1,1,1,0)
2. Kim Nilsson 6 (2,0,2,1,1)
3. Victor Palovaara 6 (2,2,0,2,d)
4. Timo Lahti 12 (3,3,1,2,3)
17. Casper Henriksson 3 (0,2,1)
IV. Ukraina 8
13. Marko Levishyn 3 (1,1,w,1,d)
14. Andriy Karpov 0 (0,0,-,w,-)
15. Stanislav Melnychuk 1 (0,-,0,1,d)
16. Roman Kapustin 0 (0,0,0,-,0)
20. Nazar Parnitskyi 4 (0,1,2,1,0,0)
