Although the Poles had a ten-point lead over their pursuers after a two-day base game at Speedway of the Nations, the title was still celebrated by the native Brits.

The highlight of the competition, which replaced the Flat Track World Cup from 2018, took place this weekend at the National Speedway Stadium in Manchester.

On the first day, the Poles brought back the six rival teams. They had a ten point lead in the final scoring. But the next day, the track was more wet, which suited the local team. The Brits scored the most points in Sunday’s race, despite injured three-time individual champion Tai Woffinden having to be replaced by underrated youngster Daniel Bewley.

Overall, however, the Poles still had the advantage, who automatically qualified for the final. The home pair faced the Danes in the semi-finals. In front of the 4000 spectators freed in the stands by anti-antidote measures, the duo Robert Lambert, Bewley faced the second and fourth with the best man of the Grand Prix of this year.

In the 44th round of the entire two-day program, however, the Polish winning spell definitely ceased to work. Bartosz Zmarzlik took the lead just after the start, but his partner Maciej Janowski fought hard with the British pair and fell just before the end of the first round.

This meant that with the modified points system, the local riders in second and third position gained five points and the winner Zmarzlik only four. The Poles, for whom “žužel” is a national sport, have been waiting for the team title since 2017.

“I knew Bewley would want to drive along the mantinel, so I wanted to block that path for him. But on the last corner it took me a bit,” described Janowski at the critical moment.

Who is most to blame?

Shortly after the race, Polish experts and fans alike began to wonder where the mistake was. Lovers of the flat track near our northern neighbors have split into two camps.

Janowski is clearly blamed for the final failure. After all, he was the one who fell.

But the second group left for Zmarzlik. “Janowski was slowed down at the start by a ‘big run’ from Zmarzlik, who was setting out for the win, but it was a defeat,” said a reader under the pseudonym obserwator 1 in a discussion on the Sportowe Fakty site under an article on the Manchester race.

The person nicknamed 4four described the situation in the same way: “Bartek (Zmarzlik) went out unnecessarily and blocked Mack (Janowského). It is true that if he climbed in the middle, Macek would join him in peace. “

Whoever is the real culprit, the defeat is the second place of the Polish flat track. Criticism has been leveled at the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM), which, together with the promoter of BSI Speedway, has devised a new competition system.

“We got the money and we started attacking. We are the best in the world and we don’t see that we will be humiliated ourselves. It is time for the Polish Speedway circuit management to finally say “No!” races against us! ”Krzysztof Cegielski, former biker and Canal + expert, was furious.