Bosses take the “positives”

Images courtesy of Taylor Lanning Photography

On a rain-soaked Lublin circuit in Poland, GB scored 12 points as Russia retained their crown for a third successive year.

Great Britain fielded their youngest-ever Team World Championship side with talisman Tai Woffinden out with a hand injury.

It was a tough night with Robert Lambert touching the tapes twice and Dan Bewley falling. The highlights of the night were Bewley sweeping around World Champion Bartosz Zmarzlik in Heat 1, only for the Pole to repay the compliment. The Brits also stormed to a 7-2 over the Czech Republic later in the meeting.

Allen said: “It was always going to be a hard night for the boys and the conditions made it even more difficult.

“We came into the meeting in not ideal circumstances without Tai. But I have to say that being around Robert, Dan, Drew Kemp and Jordan Palin for the last few days has been excellent.

“I am encouraged by their professionalism and attitude. They gave it their all despite the heavy rain and we will take all the positives from that.”

Stead added: “That will have been a massive learning curve for us all. It was as challenging as it gets, the not knowing whether it would be on, difficulties to be mentally and mechanically prepared right and also the conditions.

“All the boys coped really well. We haven’t had much luck in this competition since finishing runner-up two years ago. Let’s hope that can change in 2021.

“We’d like to thank all the fans for their support of the national side. Also thanks to all the partners of Great Britain who have been amazing this season.”

Captain Lambert said: “It was definitely a tough one. I made a big mistake in the first one and messed that up.

“But you’ve got to try and put that behind you. The track was getting progressively worse with the rain coming down.

“We tried to fix things with the bike to make it faster and get off the start because that was crucial.

“Obviously I touched the tapes again. It was a big shame for us. I know we could have done better.

“A big thanks to Rob Painter and the Management Team for all that they are doing for Great Britain for getting us out here with the big set-up we’ve got and all the sponsors that we’ve got.

“Also a big thanks to the fans in the UK for cheering us on. Just a big sorry for the bad night. This happens and you learn from it.

“Even before practice there was just a lot of slush on top, underneath was dry. We were hoping after practice we’d be OK but then it started to rain again and the hard inside line got really greasy.

“But we came here with a young team and that’s going to be good experience for us all.”