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World Championship Pairs

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10 minutes ago, britmet said:

If you can have a league where the team that tops the league table after 6 months isn't the league champions, then why expect the top points scoring pair not to have do something similar after completing the schedule ?
I'm not defending the format, just pointing out the analogues.  

Just double-checked with the FIM website, - its not the 'World Championship Pairs'. ., its called the 'Speedway of Nations' competition.
But one man can't be a nation, and neither can 2 men. 
If you're trying to identify the top nation, then just like the football world cup, it has to be a team, ..  of the usual size that predominates in that sport: in football its 11, in speedway its 7, - (okay, I'll consider 6 or 8 . )
Football wouldn't have a World Cup  that put up Ronaldo v. Kane v. Bales v. X  v.Y, etc. in a shoot-out.
Lets get back to proper internationals - we already have a Championship that determines the best rider, ( and we used to have a Pairs competition.)

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Enjoyable meeting, well done Russia, hard luck GB, no need for semi-final and final though..

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Good to have 2 days of superb racing, maybe in future the top 6 sides should be seeded to the final with one qualifier for the 7th place.

Great effort by GB, surprised by Woffinden's decision to not try and help Lambert in the final but apart from that he was sensational. Well done to Russia.

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19 minutes ago, screm said:

Bit difficult to team ride when you are second and fourth then first and fourth, both Woffinden and Lambert rode out of their skin and deserve huge credit.

Guess it may be a generational thing,and us older fans can remember riders helping their team mates in such positions.More frustrating even when Tai had made great efforts in previous heats.It can be done,it has been done and it was really the best if not only sensible option.

Just riding off on front was maybe Tai’s way of showing his rivals he is the best at the moment?Even the night after,I still find the decision strange in a team event with the rule as it stood

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Now that it's all over, I can take a balanced look at what happened over the last week.

RO1 Germany: Total Rubbish.

RO2 BV: Rubbish, had some interest for me as GB were in it, but GB qualification was never really in doubt.

Finals: Great Speedway, makes you wonder why we had to sit through the rubbish of the first 2 days, which I thought weren't really worthy of being televised.

Format: It's the TV world we live in these days, just about every televised sport, with the exception of PL Football, has buckled to TV demands for play offs/winner take all finals. Right or wrong at least you know the rules of the competition before you enter. I did enjoy the finals, maybe they should look at early season qualifiers and a 3 or 4 day knockout final? What I also found strange was looking at the scores, more or less every team seemed to be massively imbalanced with one rider scoring a massive haul of points and his partner barely scoring any, maybe this is to do with the U21 reserve, which I do think needs looking at.

GB: Tai was pure world class, his scoring obviously speaks for itself, his team riding a joy to watch, he was generally the only rider on display that was busting a gut to help his team partner... which makes his actions in the final all the more puzzling! There was a World Championship at stake after all. It's a shame that the pit reporter wasn't able to ask some more searching questions during the interviews/press conferences afterwards as it was the one questions all of the fans were asking, why did you not even try to slow Emil down? Robert Lambert looked under powered but did a great job supporting Tai and hopefully will only get better. Craig Cook, last year you would have picked him, on his form so far this year you probably wouldn't have, it's a shame Steve Worrall got injured so early as he would have possibly offered an alternative.

Others: Poland: Dudek is not the rider he was last year and their pairing did surprise me, personally I would have gone Zmarzlik and Piotr Pawlicki. Sweden: Could easily have won it if Lindback was in the right mood. Aus: Why no Holder? Was this due to unavailability in UK due to Visa?

Pearson & Tatum: Brilliant!

Russia: Well Done!

Edited by iainb
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52 minutes ago, marko said:

After this event I am left wondering how Manchester City were able to win the 38 game league season by so many points and not have to face either Manchester United or Tottenham Hotspur in a winner takes all final at Wembley? Oh hang, Football still has some credibility about it when it comes to winning a marathon event.

There is no point in comparing speedway to football. Football has huge global appeal and will command TV coverage regardless of its rules. 

Speedway and other minority sports simply have to meet the broadcasters wishes to get screened. I'd rather  last nights coverage live in HD with the contrived finish than a straight 'most points wins' with no media interest at all.

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Regardless of the result, that was proper speedway!! Tai in a different league and Robert just lacking that bit experience. A silver medal in that field is a fantastic achievment.

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21 minutes ago, iainb said:

Format: It's the TV world we live in these days, just about every televised sport, with the exception of PL Football, has buckled to TV demands for play offs/winner take all finals.

Let's look at other televised motorsports, of which speedway is one, and see.

Rally: No

F1 : No

Motocross: No

Superbikes: No

Other car motorsports of which are shown on TV: No

In fact, I'd be interested to know if ANY other motorsports follow this ridiculous rule at the end? Can you imagine the uproar if say Lewis Hamilton had won every F1 race all season and was then forced to have a sudden death race-off at the end to see if he really was worthy of being champion? It simply would never happen, as the TV and public would ridicule it and the sport would lose all credibility. 

So, not quite true I'd say...

Edited by stewmac
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51 minutes ago, screm said:

Bit difficult to team ride when you are second and fourth then first and fourth, both Woffinden and Lambert rode out of their skin and deserve huge credit.

Yes but that's the point.  It was not finishing last that was crucial, it didn't matter who won the race.  Tai largely left Robert to himself on the inside all meeting and they did deserve to win overall  -some of the other 'teams' were just individuals as usual, such as Doyle and Lindgren.

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Really proud of the British riders and they do deserve to be champions.

It's nice to have speedway on TV but at the expense of the sports credibility. As far as I'm concerned the team or rider who scores the most points in a meeting deserves the plaudits for their efforts, and not suffer the consequences  of stupid rules such as having an one-off final to determine the victory. If TV requires this sort of method to determine champions. If the SWC does return next season maybe there should be a nominated final heat with one rider from each nation competing with the winner of the race making his team World Champions.

These one-off final heats including in the SGP for me spoil the event and make a mockery of a riders achievement during the nights entertainment. Just let the rider or team scoring the most points become the champion. In the SGP on two occasion a rider has qualified for the semi finals after scoring only 6 points and might go on to win a GP with a grand total of 11 points. Yet in the same meeting another rider might score 20 points and finish second. This scenario might happen in time and it  doesn't make any sense to me.

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12 minutes ago, adonis said:

what you got with this silly format ,was an undeserving winner , pissed of supporters . and NO media interesr 

?

It was live on TV. How is that no media interest?

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4 minutes ago, Robbie B said:

Really proud of the British riders and they do deserve to be champions.

It's nice to have speedway on TV but at the expense of the sports credibility. As far as I'm concerned the team or rider who scores the most points in a meeting deserves the plaudits for their efforts, and not suffer the consequences  of stupid rules such as having an one-off final to determine the victory. If TV requires this sort of method to determine champions. If the SWC does return next season maybe there should be a nominated final heat with one rider from each nation competing with the winner of the race making his team World Champions.

These one-off final heats including in the SGP for me spoil the event and make a mockery of a riders achievement during the nights entertainment. Just let the rider or team scoring the most points become the champion. In the SGP on two occasion a rider has qualified for the semi finals after scoring only 6 points and might go on to win a GP with a grand total of 11 points. Yet in the same meeting another rider might score 20 points and finish second. This scenario might happen in time and it  doesn't make any sense to me.

Difference with the GP is that all points count towards the world title - unless the FIM in their wisdom decide to change that in the future with the top four points scorers going in a grand final at the end ;)

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Thankfully it’s a pleasure to see some posters still giving Tai the credit he deserves but not surprised at the usual Woffy haters trying to discredit him for what was one of the best GB TEAM performances in a long time.

nobody has any idea what the thought process was for the final or what orders were given so it’s just guess work. And as usual Tai is the guilty partner as per usual. How anyone can call Tai selfish after his amazing performances throughout the tournament I find completely baffling, tho not in the slightest bit surprised.

Tai as usual showed what a professional and dedicated approach to his country yet some still happy to bash. Not surprised of course.

thank god for Woffy, on course to be the greatest British rider ever.

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5 minutes ago, stevebrum said:

thank god for Woffy, on course to be the greatest British rider ever.

There's a strong argument that he already is. I certainly think so.

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13 minutes ago, stewmac said:

Let's look at other televised motorsports, of which speedway is one, and see.

Rally: No

F1 : No

Motocross: No

Superbikes: No

Other car motorsports of which are shown on TV: No

In fact, I'd be interested to know if ANY other motorsports follow this ridiculous rule at the end? Can you imagine the uproar if say Lewis Hamilton had won every F1 race all season and was then forced to have a sudden death race-off at the end to see if he really was worthy of being champion? It simply would never happen, as the TV and public would ridicule it and the sport would lose all credibility. 

So, not quite true I'd say...

Didn't F1 toy with the idea of double points in the final race because Red Bull kept winning? All those sports you mention are not really local team sports though are they? Speedway is a little different as they have separate team and individual competitions at national and international level. There's only really top league football that has the financial clout to call the tune to TV companies

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