It was a chilly and sunny Friday of September 18, 1998. The clouds in the sky were silver and the sun was shining as bright as gold.
Lucina, a 20 year-old girl, was queueing along with her friends in the enormous crowd in front of the gates of the Polonia Bydgoszcz Stadium. They were holding tickets in their hands and were eager to see Tomasz Gollob, their favorite speedway champion competing at the Individual Speedway World Championship.
When they entered the stadium, they were amazed to see people of all ages raising Polish flags in the sky with Tomasz Gollob’s name, wearing unique scarves with the Polish flag represented on them too. Lucina and her friends were so enchanted that they bought scarfs and flags too in order to keep them as memorabilia.
After that, they went to their seats and waited impatiently for the race to start.Suddenly, the referee announced the beginning of the race and everybody stood up and cheered and sang the national anthem.
The first competitors were announced and the first round began. People were shouting from the enormous crowds while the motorcycles rolled the dust fighting for the first place. The championship lasted for three hours, but neither Lucina nor her friends were tired. The race ended and the referee started to announce the winners. People stoof up, cheered, clapped their hands and shouted of happiness to the first place winner who was Tony Rickardsson, the runner-up-Jimmy Nilsen and the third place champion-TOMASZ GOLLOB!
Lucina was surrounded by a mix of feelings of happiness, pride and amazement because her favorite speedway star won! She and her friends were in the ninth cloud because they had such an amazing experience and the fortune to be there. They made some photos and then went home full of joy. Lucina was eager to celebrate together with her friends the winning of Tomasz Gollob.
The next day, all the Polish newspapers wrote about Tomasz Gollob and the championship that took place in Bydgoszcz. Lucina cut the articles about speedway from them and placed them in her journal along with her lucky ticket. She was sure that one day, the journal, the ticket, the scarf and the flag would be part of the Polish Speedway history.
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This story was written by Mariuta Ursachi, an 8th form pupil from G. Cosbuc High School from Balti, Moldova, in the framework of the project Selected News in English. Mariuta relied on an account and video presentation made by Alicja Zygmunt, a student at III Liceum Ogólnokształcące of Adam Mickiewicz in Bydgoszcz, Poland where she shared the stories of her mum as a big fan of speedway and Tomasz Gollob, the Polish speedway Champion.
We would also like to express our gratitude to Mrs Paulina Kaźmierczak-Majdzińska, the English language teacher who guided the Polish students in the framework of the project Selected News in English.