Will he replace Janowski? Sensational candidate to fight for the Grand Prix and SEC!

The Golden Helmet has been a national qualification for the Grand Prix and SEC for years. Until the pandemic, almost all Polish competitors could qualify for its final. This has not been the case for a few seasons. The final 16 are decided by the coach of the Polish national team, Rafał Dobrucki.

He reports 15 riders and 2 reserves to the Main Speedway Sport Commission. The Speedway headquarters supplements the list with one "wild card" rider.

The national team riders have the priority to start, so it is certain that unless health problems eliminate anyone, on April 21st we will see on the track in Opole: Bartosz Zmarzlik, Dominik Kubera, Patryk Dudek, Janusz Kołodziej, Jarosław Hampel, Mateusz Cierniak and Bartłomiej Kowalski. And who will be among the remaining nine distinguished?

In the circles of activists associated with PZM we hear that the coach will not wait with nominations until the start of the league competition, because it will start very late (April 11-13). He has a list practically ready, prepared based on the results of the players from the previous season.

The individual junior world champion, Wiktor Przyjemski, and the third competitor in the senior individual European championships in the 2024 season, Kacper Woryna, may feel certain for the nomination. It is also very likely that the individual youth champion of Poland, Jakub Krawczyk, will be distinguished. And who else?

The list of very serious candidates for nomination is opened by: Grzegorz Zengota and Szymon Woźniak. Both Pawlicki brothers: Piotr and Przemysław, also have a good chance of finding themselves in the cast of the Golden Helmet 2025 final.

However, it is widely said that the coach will not focus only on the PGE Ekstraliga classification list. In connection with this, the shares of the most effective Pole in the Metalkas 2. Ekstraliga 2024 - Krzysztof Buczkowski and, what sounds the most sensational - the most effective domestic player in the KLŻ 2024 competition - Robert Chmiel - are also high.

The 26-year-old performed brilliantly in the SEC final tournament at the Silesian Stadium in Chorzów last season (5th place), and Kolejarz Opole officials are also reportedly lobbying for him, hoping that their team's former leader will attract additional fans to the stadium.

Janowski himself, mentioned at the beginning, is a separate story. Although the PZM Main Board has removed him from the squad for the 2025 season, a compromise is still supposedly possible and he will be allowed to fight for places in the Grand Prix and SEC qualifiers. If the speedway rider expresses remorse and apologizes for his behavior, he may be the one who gets a "wild card" from the GKSŻ for the Opole final of the Golden Helmet.

Let us recall that the stakes of the tournament, which will be broadcast by TVP Sport on April 21, are three places in the Grand Prix 2025 qualifiers and five places in the SEC 2025 qualifiers. They will be divided among the highest ranked in the Golden Helmet.

Bartosz Zmarzlik will probably, following the example of previous years, give up the right to start in the World Championship qualifiers, and Piotr Pawlicki and Kacper Woryna have already guaranteed a start in the finals of this year's individual European Championships, so a ticket to start in the World Championship and European Championship qualifiers may be granted even by a lower place in the Opole tournament than fifth.