03/10/2023

POLISH RACER CIERNIAK DEFIES DRAMATIC FINISH TO SEAL FIM SGP2 TITLE DOUBLE IN VOJENS

Double FIM SGP2 world champion Mateusz Cierniak admits he feared he would “lose everything” after holding on to retain his FIM Speedway Under-21 World Championship in dramatic style in Vojens, Denmark on Friday.Cierniak led an unforgettable Polish one-two-three on 49 points with Jørgen Hansen Biler FIM SGP2 of Denmark – Vojens winner Damian Ratajczak, who topped the podium in the final round to snatch silver on 45. Bartlomiej Kowalski took the bronze medal on 42 – pipping Australian Under-21 champion Keynan Rew (41) to third place by one point.Lublin and Lejonen racer Cierniak went into the Vojens round with a 10-point lead over Rew and Kowalski, and the Tarnow-born star just needed to avoid last place in semi-final one to seal the SGP2 crown. But disaster struck when Cierniak’s front wheel caught the bottom tape, with referee Craig Ackroyd forced to disqualify him from the re-run.Victory in the final for either Rew or Kowalski would have seen the title snatched away from Cierniak, who won the opening two rounds in Prague and Gorzow – the second of those with a sensational seven-ride maximum. But both riders finished third in their semi-final, missing out on qualification for the final, handing gold to a very relieved Cierniak.The 20-year-old is only the fourth double FIM Speedway Under-21 world champion in history, following in the footsteps of former world No.3 Emil Sayfutdinov, Aussie icon Darcy Ward and Polish star Maksym Drabik.Despite being tipped as red-hot favourite to grab gold, Cierniak feared his tapes slip-up had cost him junior speedway’s biggest prize. He said: “Everyone was telling me over the last few weeks, ‘Oh, you have it! No-one will take this from you.’ But I was telling everyone, ‘Keep calm, I still have a lot of work to do.’“This competition was very difficult. There was a lot of pressure, a lot of stress and I had every emotion. I was sad, I was happy, I was angry – everything. I wanted to cry! It’s just unbelievable what happened.“In my mind, this very short moment before the tapes went up in the semi-final was very long. I was waiting, waiting and maybe I was a little bit too nervous.“When I hit the tapes, my first thought was, ‘Oh, my God! We have worked all season for this, I hit one tape in this heat and now it’s possible to lose everything.’ For sure, luck smiled on me and Bartek and Keynan had pressure too. They knew what was at stake and now I have been working for all season.” 

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