A close meeting was expected between the finalists of Australia, Poland, Sweden and Russia, and so this proved in an eventful meeting which began with the home nation riders struggling to tune into the track conditions.
the Aussies took full advantage and led the way for the bulk fo the meeting, but after heat 19 another bout of heavy rain enforced an hours delay whilst the surface water was brudhed away and work began on the track.
this work involved some of the top surface being dragged to the inside of the track, most notably along the start/finish straight, and a meeting of the team managers took place with the Aussies team manager not happy with the decision taken on having the dirt on the inside.
From this point on, and with Poland having the now grippier inside gate in 3 of the last 6 heats, the racing resumed and initially the Aussies maintained their slender lead. However a heat 23 'joker' earned the Poles double points for 2nd place which brought them within 3 points of the leaders.
Heat 24 saw the scores between Poland and Australia tie at 41 points each after Batchelor for Australia ran a last whilst the Poles took the heat victory, leaving a last heat decider, in front of a very vocal home crowd.
Tomasz Gollob took to the startline on the inside gate aboard team mates bike (Kasperzak) having put in a poor showing up-to this point. Alongside him was Leigh Adams for Australia who rides for Lezno in the Polish league.
Gollob produced both the start and the ride that he is known capable of, but had not in the meeting so far, to lead away fromt he start and he never looked back, even taking time to punch the air in celebration along the back straight of the last lap to ensure that Poland took the world title by a single point.
Back in the pits the Aussies were rightly gutted at having ran out of steam, with their captain Jason Crump happy that their team had put in '110% of effort in every race'.
The final score line reads:
Poland - 44 points
Australia - 43 points
Sweden - 36 points
Russia - 35 points