Monday 22nd October 2012, 11:20

Poole skipper Chris Holder says he is “still planning to race” in Pirates’ Elite League play-off final decider with Swindon at Wimborne Road tonight despite suffering an ankle injury in Poland.

The world champion scored 11 points as Torun clinched the Ekstraliga bronze medals 91-89 on aggregate with a 49-41 loss in Zielona Gora on Sunday afternoon.

Holder did not crash, but left the meeting in pain when he caught his foot under the footrest.

With Poole No.1 Darcy Ward already ruled out after being left with a bleed on the brain following an incident in Dorset on Friday night, Holder is determined to fight on.

Last night, he tweeted: “Never crashed today my foot went under the footrest going down the straight... Was pretty painful! Still planning to race tomorrow!”

Ward will be replaced by King’s Lynn’s SGP star Niels-Kristian Iversen and there is no doubt Poole will wish the meeting had gone ahead last Wednesday and Friday, when rain stopped the action taking place.

But Holder is keen to contest British domestic speedway’s biggest meeting on a fair track.

He said: “We’ve wanted to get on with it, but we understand this is a final. Every time it comes around we are pumped up and ready to go. It’s not good when you get let down by the weather. But we want a fair race on a fair race track.

“If we get some good weather today, it’s going to be a cracker. Swindon are a good team and we’ve had to wait a fair bit for this, which has built up a bit of pressure.

“But we’ve raced all year as a team and there isn’t a much better feeling than winning with your mates. We’ve got a good chance against Swindon, but it’s going to go down to the wire I reckon.”

Holder faces a hectic week with Poole as the club stages their Knockout Cup semi-final, first leg with Peterborough on Wednesday, before Pirates travel to the East of England Showground on Thursday.

Despite the prospect of his side still being able to win the double, Holder’s patience with the crisis-hit competition, which controversially saw Swindon knocked out without turning a wheel, is wearing thin.

“To be honest, I just wish they’d cancel that whole series because it’s pretty pointless I reckon,” Holder said.

“It has wasted a lot of people’s time. We started off in this in one of our first meetings against Wolverhampton back in May. Here we are in October and we haven’t even done the second round yet.

“There are probably reasons why it’s like this, but if they ran it at the beginning of the season as a warm-up before the league started, that would be the best bet.

“All the guys would be pretty fresh and wouldn’t have done much racing. If you can do it in the KO Cup, which isn’t as important as the league, maybe it would be a good warm-up.”

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