Speedway: Bjarne's backing Poles to lift cup (From Bournemouth Echo)

Speedway: Bjarne's backing Poles to lift cup

7:00am Saturday 24th July 2010 in

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DENMARK star Bjarne Pedersen believes it would be a catastrophe for Poland if they were not to win the World Team Cup this year.

Pirates’ stalwart feels the Poles have the strongest side going into the tournament ahead of tonight’s event one at Gorzow.

Russia and the Czech Republic complete the Gorzow line-up alongside hosts Poland and Denmark.

Great Britain entertain Australia, Sweden and Finland at King’s Lynn in event two on Monday.

Pedersen, who received a late call-up into his national team after being left out of Jan Staechmann’s initial squad, said: “Poland are very strong.

“If they don’t win the final this year with the team they have, in my view, it would be a catastrophe for them, even with the final at Vojens.

“You look at Gollob, Hampel, Holta, Kolodziej and Miedzinski. They are all on top of their game at the moment.

“I can’t see them being beaten, although we will give it our best shot.”

Pedersen says winning a third world crown with Denmark would be a dream come true for him.

But he admits: “It’ll be tough. Sweden, Australia and GB are similar in strength to us, and you have to be realistic and say Poland are the favourites.

“The best thing for Denmark would be for Poland to go through directly to the final from event one and we finish second so we can have a practice at Vojens in the race-off.”

Pedersen said it had crossed his mind to sit out the competition, despite receiving a late plea from Staechmann to take part.

But the Pirate admitted a love of representing his country meant he couldn’t turn down the national team manager’s request.

Pedersen said: “Jan called me and said ‘I’ve made a mistake’ and would I like to ride.

“I’m not replacing Nicki Pedersen, who is injured. I was already in the team before Nicki announced he’d be sidelined.

“I was very disappointed when Jan named his team without me because I feel I’ve had a good start to the season.

“When Jan phoned me I was probably a bit surprised, but I wanted to be part of the team and my answer was ‘yes’.

“It felt a little bit like should I do it or not because first of all he didn’t want me. But it’s one of the biggest weeks of the year, so I want to be part of it.

“It’s three years since I was at Gorzow so I don’t know too much about the track.

“But I’ll have three bikes, we’ll do practice and we’ll see which one goes best.

“There are no hard feelings. I’m just glad to be back in the team.”