A HEROIC effort from captain Tai Woffinden was not enough to fire Great Britain into the World Cup final as Poland triumphed in tonight’s race-off in Vojens.

Woffinden produced a perfect evening’s work in Denmark to deliver 21 points from six rides – including one as a tactical – for team boss Alun Rossiter but that was still not enough to defeat the Poles.

Poland topped the leaderboard with 48 points to progress to Saturday’s final, with Britain second on 43. The USA were third after collecting 22, while a three-man Russian team returned just 11 points.

Youngster Robert Lambert claimed two heat wins from four rides for eight points overall, while Chris Harris and Danny King collected seven each.

Team captain Woffinden got GB off to the perfect start with a tapes-to-flags victory in the first heat of the night Danny King could only finish third in head two but youngster Robert Lambert showed excellent speed to hold off Pole Bartosz Zmarzlik to take a sublime win.

Chris Harris was then inches from making it three wins from the first four heats but was edged out on the line by Poland’s Krzysztof Buczkowski.

Harris was also second in heat five as the Pole’s took a two-point lead a quarter of the way through the meet although that began to grow as Lambert could only finish third behind Maciej Janowski in the next.

The pattern continued as Buczkowski got the better of King but skipper Woffinden then got GB back on track with a much-needed win, boosted by the fact the Poles could only finish third.

Zmarzlik soon got Poland back in the winners’ circle, seeing off King, but Woffinden hit back to make it a hat-trick of victories as GB trailed the Poles by three points at halfway.

Harris delivered GB’s first no-pointer in heat 11 but the fact that they six points adrift of Poland allowed Rossiter to use his joker in the next.

It turned out to be a sensational move as Woffinden replaced Lambert and duly delivered his fourth win, the victory extra sweet as Poland’s Przemyslaw Pawlicki was disqualified meaning things were level at the top of the standings.

Reigning world champion Greg Hancock then claimed a first win for USA, with Harris only third but Lambert produced an unbelievable win in the next to tie the scores again.

GB then took the lead for the first time since the opening heat at the three-quarter mark as Woffinden delivered a sublime fifth success.

However, the hopes of Rossiter’s men took a big blow as King returned no points in heat 16 as Janowski claimed victory.

Lambert could only finish third in the first of the manager’s selection heats but Woffinden cut the gap to the Poles to three points with two races to go when he completed a perfect night of six wins from six.

But when Harris could only finish second behind Buczkowski in the penultimate heat, GB’s race was run as they trailed the Poles by four points.

And Poland capped their triumphant night as Janowski won the last – their 11th win from 20 heats – ahead of King.

HEAT DETAILS

HEAT ONE: Woffinden, Janowski, Kurdriashov, Rumul (GB 3, POL 2, RUS 1, USA 0)

HEAT TWO: Pawlicki, Hancock, King, Belousov (POL 5, GB 4, USA 2, RUS 1)

HEAT THREE: Lambert, Zmarzlik, Fisher, Gafurov (GB 7, POL 7, USA 3, RUS 1)

HEAT FOUR: Buczkowski, Harris, Manzares, NR (POL 10, GB 9, USA 4, RUS 1)

HEAT FIVE: Pawlicki, Harris, Ruml, Gafurov X (POL 13, GB 11, USA 5, RUS 1)

HEAT SIX: Janowski, Hancock, Lambert, NR (POL 16, GB 12, USA 7, RUS 1)

HEAT SEVEN: Buczkowski, King, Fisher, Kurdriashov (POL 19, GB 14, USA 8, RUS 1)

HEAT EIGHT: Woffinden, Belousov, Zmarzlik, Manzares (POL 20, GB 17, USA 8, RUS 3)

HEAT NINE: Zmarzlik, King, Hancock^, Belosouv (POL 23, GB 19, USA 10, RUS 3)

HEAT TEN: Woffinden, Buczkowski, Hancock, Gafurov (POL 25, GB 22, USA 11, RUS 3)

HEAT 11: Janowski, Fisher, Belousov, Harris (POL 28, GB 22, USA 13, RUS 4)

HEAT 12: Woffinden^, Kurdriashov, Manzares, Pawlicki DQ (GB 28, POL 28, USA 14, RUS 6)

HEAT 13: Hancock, Zmarzlik, Harris, Kurdriashov (POL 30, GB 29, USA 17, RUS 6)

HEAT 14: Lambert, Buczkowski, Belosouv, Ruml (GB3 32, POL 32, USA 17, RUS 7)

HEAT 15: Woffinden, Pawlicki, Fisher, Kurdriashov (GB 35, POL 34, USA 18, RUS 7)

HEAT 16: Janowski, Gafurov, Manzares, King (POL 37, GB 35, USA 19, RUS 9)

HEAT 17: Pawlicki, Hancock, Lambert, Gafurov (POL 40, GB 36, USA 21, RUS 9)

HEAT 18: Woffinden, Zmarzlik, Belousov, Fisher (POL 42, GB 39, USA 21, RUS 10)

HEAT 19: Buczkowski, Harris, Kurdriashov, Manzares (POL 45, GB 41, USA 21, RUS 11)

HEAT 20: Janowski, King, Ruml, NR (POL 48, GB 43, USA 22, RUS 11)

GREAT BRITAIN

Tai Woffinden – 3+3+3+6^+3+3 = 21

Danny King – 1+2+2+0+2 = 7

Robert Lambert – 3+1+3+1 = 8

Chris Harris – 2+2+0+1+2 = 7