The last Speedway World Cup final could hardly have been more dramatic; the tension reached its peak in the final heat of the evening in Wroc\u0142aw, when Maciej Janowski secured the title for Poland. Apart from Janusz Kolodziej, who is replaced by Kacper Woryna, Poland are fielding the same team as in 2023; captain Bartosz Zmarzlik spoke on behalf of the host nation after training in Warsaw. \u201cI\u2019m delighted to be back at the PGE Narodowy; it\u2019s a privilege to be here and to ride for Poland in red and white. I want to make this evening something very special,\u201d said Zmarzlik, who made his World Cup debut for his country in 2015 and won gold with Poland for the first time in 2016. \u201cWe have a great history in the World Cup and will do everything we can to make our dream of gold come true. There are a whole host of important speedway decisions this year, but this one is the most important.\u201d<\/p>\n
A debut for Brady Kurtz<\/p>\n
Whilst Zmarzlik has already won gold three times in the World Cup, Brady Kurtz will be competing in his first World Cup final, having been a reserve in 2016 but not featuring in the race. \u201cIt\u2019s brilliant to be here. It\u2019s my first time, and as captain too \u2013 that\u2019s a very special moment,\u201d he said, expressing his excitement ahead of the race in Warsaw, where the Australian team will be without Jack Holder, one of the heroes of last year\u2019s triumph at the Speedway of Nations. \u201cIt\u2019s a shame Jack isn\u2019t with us. He helped lead us here, alongside me, with our victory at the Nations. It\u2019s a bit of a blow for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alongside GP riders Max Fricke and Jason Doyle, Ryan Douglas and next year\u2019s GP rider Rohan Tungate complete the line-up for the men from Down Under. Kurtz: \u201cI remain very confident that we have a strong team. I believe both Ryan and Rohan have enormous potential. Ryan is one of the four regular riders and has had two good seasons. I\u2019m confident that both of them can put in a good performance.\u201d<\/p>\n
There is also great anticipation in the Danish camp, as captain Michael Jepsen Jensen emphasises. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be brilliant \u2013 it\u2019ll be one of the best events in many years and the venue makes it even better,\u201d says the 34-year-old. \u201cI think the atmosphere in the team is good; we\u2019re working well together and it\u2019ll be exciting to see what lies ahead. It\u2019ll be a very close contest, and we\u2019ll have to give it our all. We\u2019ve got a strong line-up, so anything could happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Great Britain is significantly weakened<\/p>\n
The British team, which secured its place in the World Cup final with a victory in the semi-final in Landshut, has been hit by injuries and a retirement. \u201cAt the start of the season, we were confident that, if everyone was fit, we could challenge for gold. But it\u2019s going to be very tough for us, and we need to set realistic targets. If we can compete for a medal, we\u2019d be very happy with how the weekend goes. These are very unfortunate circumstances for us. We\u2019d hoped that Tai Woffinden would be fully fit again, but he\u2019s picked up another injury and has since retired. On top of that, we\u2019ve had the misfortune of losing Dan Bewley to injury as well,\u201d said captain Robert Lambert. \u201cWhen it comes to the World Cup, it\u2019s the highlight of our sport, and every rider wants to be in the team. Competing in this stadium is going to be incredible, and leading the team is always a pleasure. We\u2019ve now brought in a few young riders, which is good for the future. It\u2019ll be a great experience for them, and it\u2019ll be exciting to see what they\u2019re capable of. We\u2019re all excited and keen to see where we stand. We\u2019re in high spirits.\u201d<\/p>\n
The World Cup final will be broadcast on Saturday evening from 6.40 pm via a pay-per-view livestream on Discovery+. The competition, comprising 20 heats, will start at 7 pm.<\/p>\n
Speedway World Cup line-up, Final, Warsaw\/PL:<\/p>\n
Poland: Bartosz Zmarzlik, Maciej Janowski, Dominik Kubera, Patryk Dudek, Kacper Woryna; Team managers: Stanislaw Chomski & Dariusz Cieslak<\/p>\n
Great Britain: Robert Lambert, Charles Wright, Adam Ellis, Leon Flint, Tom Brennan; Team managers: Oliver Allen<\/p>\n
Denmark: Mikkel Michelsen, Leon Madsen, Michael Jepsen Jensen, Anders Thomsen, Frederik Jakobsen; Team manager: Nicki Pedersen<\/p>\n
Australia: Ryan Douglas, Brady Kurtz, Jason Doyle, Max Fricke, Rohan Tungate; Team manager: Mark Lemon<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The last Speedway World Cup final could hardly have been more dramatic; the tension reached its peak in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155089,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[95],"tags":[182,181],"class_list":["post-155088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-warsaw","tag-poland","tag-warsaw"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/117177888442373068","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155088\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}