Stanisław Chomski is the coach of the Polish national team, who together with the white and red team has already won a gold medal in the Speedway of Nations, and now aims for another gold in Warsaw. In an interview with ekstraliga.pl, he shares his insights about the current squad and reminisces about the years when he led the team in the Team World Cup.
Łukasz Rusiecki (ekstraliga.pl): I would like to talk with you about the Polish national team. In your opinion, what has changed over the last 20 years in the Polish team, excluding obvious equipment issues, but what changes were crucial in terms of the team’s functioning, the approach of the players, and the coaching staff?
Stanisław Chomski (coach of the Polish national team): It’s hard to say, because I wasn’t closely involved with the team daily, although I was constantly dealing with the players. In terms of representing Poland, my experience in this matter isn’t very extensive, although certainly, above all, the players are different, and as you mentioned earlier, the equipment. There were coaching changes. Marek Cieślak was initially the coach, then Rafał Dobrucki, who replaced Marek Cieślak in two positions. Many changes also took place regarding the development of various leagues. Previously, young speedway riders competed in the 85-125cc classes, but in the meantime, the pit bike class was introduced, where adepts are also trained and maybe not typically in the context of the national team, but it is also the future of our national team. Additionally, the 250cc and 500Rcc classes appeared. The league system also changed from ten to eight teams, and the playoff phase was introduced. Many new events appeared, as at some point, the Team World Cup was abandoned for the Speedway of Nations, in which we haven’t yet won a gold medal. FIM Europe’s competitions expanded, and the European Individual Championships, or SEC, gained rank.
Was it harder to reach the players and consolidate them as a well-cooperating team now or in the past? Do you think speedway has individualized on a larger scale than it was, say, 20-30 years ago?
It’s an evolutionary process. When I finished my 2.5-year work with the team, where there were no camps or consultations, I can say that primarily there was no work with various specialists who could enhance the quality of certain aspects directly affecting the players’ performance. I’m referring to awareness of nutrition, i.e., dieticians, mental preparation methods, and also paying attention to supplementation, including from a doping perspective. There is more media interest now, making speedway no longer a highly secondary sport. The range of sponsors has also increased, thanks to which big corporations are entering. Television has a significant impact on popularizing the discipline, broadcasting almost everything possible through different transmission streams, including Speedway Grand Prix. A lot has also changed due to the narrowing down of the number of riders from countries that used to dominate, like England, Denmark, and Sweden, although the speedway is being rebuilt in some of these areas. Speedway Ekstraliga’s activities from the U24 Ekstraliga to Speedway Ekstraliga Camp are a huge plus. It must also be said that unfortunately, the competition has decreased because I remember that 20 years ago, we could easily present two equal, or maybe even three Polish national teams, but now we have a problem selecting riders with a sufficiently high sporting level, as shown by our last gold medal in the Team World Cup, secured by Maciej Janowski in the final race. This season, we also faced an issue with the absence of the injured Wiktor Przyjemski, who missed the Speedway of Nations 2 final, resulting in us not winning any medal in those events. I think foreign nations are benefiting quite a bit from all this, but not necessarily our riders.
Your greatest success was the 2005 season, when the Polish national team won a gold medal in the Speedway of Nations, and it seems that was a breakthrough moment for the national team’s successes. How do you remember that time, and what was key to winning with such a large margin (28 points) over the second team, Sweden?
That was a demolition, although more than thirty years ago, we already won a gold medal, although that event was called the Team World Championships. We won a silver medal in 2001, but three years later, in 2004, we had a complete flop, and it wasn’t that no one wanted to ride for the national team, but our squad was very experimental. There were no candidates willing to assume the role of the team’s coach, and I was cornered by the chairman of the Main Speedway Sport Commission, Mr. Marek Karwan, and was somewhat obliged to take up the mantle of leading the team. Working in a club before, I had to take charge of the team, which was quite a challenge for me despite having some experience working with youth earlier. I remember that during the meeting back then, I received the notification to simply take it up, and that was it. There was significant competition within the team, and not everyone made it. Players knew their roles, and there was a certain division of hierarchy. Everyone was very aware of our path, from eliminations in Swedish Eskilstuna and then race-offs in Wrocław if unsuccessful. Everyone knew, if not now, then when? Tomasz Gollob and Piotr Protasiewicz didn’t particularly like each other, but we were one solid team, adhering to the principle of ‘one for all, all for one.’ A junior, Krzysztof Kasprzak, was called up, who raced for the local team Smederna Eskilstuna and appeared in the squad as a reserve instead of the very dissatisfied Grzegorz Walasek. The decision didn’t defend itself, but everyone helped each other in every aspect, from equipment to mental matters. Calling up Rune Holta, who was a foreigner with a Polish passport, turned out to be controversial. This rider was then racing for UNIA Tarnów and fully deserved the call-up as it turned out in the following years also receiving call-ups to the team, among others from Marek Cieślak, hence some principles were broken then.
The following year unfortunately ended at the play-off in Reading, as we lost to Denmark and Great Britain, and with the latter by seven points. What went wrong then? Did you have thoughts of selecting different riders?
It seemed Janusz Kołodziej, who raced in Reading daily, would be a pillar of the team, but it turned out he wasn’t. Piotr Protasiewicz, who suffered a severe accident in Sweden a few days earlier, couldn’t participate either. It must be said clearly that English tracks require specific equipment, and except for Tomek Gollob, who purchased an engine from a rider competing in England specifically for these races and it was bought for a colossal amount, the rest did not meet the challenge. We didn’t possess adequate experience and knowledge, although riders like Janusz Kołodziej had extensive knowledge about the tracks and equipment, but it turned out to be insufficient to achieve a satisfactory result. I don’t completely negatively assess the performances of our representatives, although it turned out to be far too little to achieve a positive sporting outcome.
In your opinion, is the change regarding the so-called joker fair? Is it fair that one race could completely change the course of the competition, for example, Tomasz Gollob performed this role in England?
It’s hard for me to assess since we weren’t the masterminds behind this rule but the FIM decision-makers. It was supposed to make the spectacle more attractive and it seemed it would help others, and in the end, it often helped our team. Organizers naturally want more attractiveness and variance in events, and the joker institution provided that.
Do you believe the SoN format is more challenging due to the skills needed for pair riding and tactically managing races concerning starting positions and communication between riders, or does the problem with the lack of greater Polish successes in this format lie elsewhere?
Once there was a one-day final of pairs, but for me, it’s nothing else but pairs championships and there used to be more separate events before, however, observing our dominance over two decades likely made the decision that something had to change. It’s hard to pinpoint why these competitions don’t go our way. It’s possible that other nations have made a significant sporting improvement, especially those racing in the PGE Ekstraliga daily. There’s a need to delve into this topic much more, but I think often the main role is played by the day’s form. An example of this is Jack Holder, who performed excellently in the last Speedway of Nations final, though he’s usually a regular and effective rider, it was far from such a brilliant form in other races. Jason Doyle was also in reserve, which made a remarkable trio, but also last year in Manchester they won where we didn’t perform well, and they race there regularly. Maybe, our riders simply close themselves off to riding on tracks solely familiar to them? It’s obvious that it’s a huge logistical challenge and requires the right mindset, because if you race once in England, then shortly in Sweden and later in Poland, this variability in conditions requires genuinely solid preparation, especially mentally. Our riders usually focus on Sweden or Denmark, and maybe that isn’t entirely the right direction? Soon restrictions will be introduced in this regard, which I commend, but very rare checking in conditions that aren’t well-known to us in terms of track or atmospheric conditions may cause us not to be able to solve this puzzle promptly. All these are just musings, and it’s hard to answer the question unequivocally. Everyone has their start policy, and it looks different from the perspective of Anglo-Saxon racers who live in England or Australia and treat the Polish league as a place to develop and earn, but after their career, they have no dealings with this country. We, conversely, visit there and maybe in this mindset, which characterizes every nation, lies the cause of such results?
If you had to currently indicate four Polish riders for the DPŚ squad, who would you choose?
I won’t venture into such games because I don’t want to dismiss certain riders. There is a group of riders that will be chosen to represent our country, but with what success, we don’t know. Such selections might discourage riders and lower their morale. It’s easy to say, after all, we have four Polish representatives in the Speedway Grand Prix, so the choice should be obvious, but unfortunately, it’s not, and everything will be verified by the season, which will only develop over time, so unfortunately, I won’t attempt to make selections.
Is holding the DPŚ in Warsaw, in such a large venue, a good way to promote the discipline, and should organizers follow this path in the future by hosting the final, for example, in Cardiff stadium?
Once there was a tendency to hold important competitions in such large stadiums because there was Cardiff, Stockholm, Prague, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Berlin, or Norway and the Hamar events, so I see that promoters know how to count money, and we as Poles do it best organizationally, creating optimal conditions for fans, like at the PGE National Stadium. The event in Poland’s capital is a global-scale event regarding motorsports, especially when we talk about speedway. Everything also depends on the financial level and profitability of organizing such events. The positive fact is that Polish fans are incredibly passionate about speedway, unlike, for instance, in Sweden or the United Kingdom, where the Speedway Grand Prix tournament in Cardiff was canceled due to low interest.
Łukasz Rusiecki
