Chris Holder admitted he was a relieved man after avoiding a broken arm injury when it was inadvertently hit hard by Greg Hancock’s footrest during the Grand Prix of Poland tonight.

And his Poole team-mate Artur Mroczka has confirmed he came out relatively unscathed following a race 20 fall which saw him hit the shale hard after crashing into Magnus Zetterstrom.

At first, it was feared Pirates’ star Holder had sustained a break above the elbow in a horrendous heat 14 spill which saw him have to pull out of the meeting through injury.

But, about half an hour after the crash, Sky Sports’ television presentation team, who were covering the meeting live, said they had been told by Holder’s pits crew that he hadn’t broken his arm.

Then Holder, who hopes he has only sustained muscle damage, told Sky: “It’s not broken, and that’s the best news I have heard for a long time.

“As soon as he hit me I had a big burning sensational in my arm, and thought that’s it, it’s broken.

“Hopefully the X-rays in Poland are good.

“I don’t know what to say about the crash because my mum and dad are here (from Australia).

“I’m sorry about it, but I’ll be back for the next GP (at Cardiff on July 10).”

Holder had originally told his Poole Castle Cover team-mate Darcy Ward, helping him out in the pits, that he thought he had broken his arm above the elbow.

Pirates’ star was storming up the inside on the third turn at Torun to try and overtake Jason Crump and Hancock as they all chased Rune Holta in heat 14.

But the Pirate hit a big hole, his bike lifted violently and he bailed off the back of the machine.

As his bike flung itself across the track, Crump was able to avoid the stricken Holder, but Hancock wasn’t so lucky.

Hancock’s footrest hit Holder’s left arm at high speed as the American tried unsuccessfully to miss hitting the Australian.

Holder got up quickly after the horror spill, but he was holding his left arm tightly and was shaking his head as if to say ‘no this is not good’ as he walked towards the centre green first-aid medical staff.

Then he slumped on the ground, the ambulance was called and he was taken off to the track medical room for X-rays to see what the exact nature of the damage was.

Amazingly, Holder was still holding eighth place with six points ahead of the fifth round of qualifying races in Torun, his home track in the Polish League.

If he hadn’t hit the hole, he was odds-on to reach the semi-finals and was also on course to progress to his first GP final in only his fifth appearance since joining the World Championship elite this year.

As it is, he ended up finishing ninth after grabbing a win, second and third in his opening three races in front of a sell-out 17,000 crowd, while wild card Adrian Miedzinski, who also got six points from his full quota of five rides, edged into the semis in front of him.

Despite the incident, Holder only slipped from eighth to ninth in the overall standings with 41 points, only three behind Nicki Pedersen.

Tomasz Gollob won the Grand Prix of Poland, sweeping to seven race wins and a spectacular unbeaten 24 point tally.

He headed Rune Holta, Jarek Hampel and Crump in a Polish one-two-three.

Gollob also leads overall with 78, with Hampel second on 75 and Kenneth Bjerre third on 59.

Earlier, Holder was second out in heat three but was passed on the outside by Chris Harris on the second bend.

The Aussie managed to stay on his bike after being hit from behind by Pepe Protasiewicz coming off the fourth turn.

Holder chased Harris hard and dived under him on the back straight of the last lap into second bend Hampel.

But the Brit smartly cut back and dashed under Holder on the final turn to relegate the Poole rider back to third in his opening ride.

Holder gated in front in race seven, but Bjerre squeezed outside him on the back straight just before they went into turn three.

The Pirate had plenty of speed, and tried everything to get past the Dane, even having to purposely slow up so he didn’t bash into the back of Bjerre.

But the Dane held on to first, with Holder settling for second in front of Nicki Pedersen and Tai Woffinden.

Holder bagged a brilliant win off gate four in heat nine after he had made a spectacular jet-propelled start to blast into the lead.

The Aussie held off fast-charging Hans Andersen, with Andreas Jonsson and Miedzinski nowhere.

Then Holder suffered his horrendous spill as he fell on the third turn while trying to spring from last into second inside Crump and Hancock as they all chased Holta.

Ironically, Poole reserve Mroczka made his GP bow in place of injured Holder in heat 20 in his role as first reserve for the meeting.

But the Pole fell heavily after hitting the same hole Holder had, bringing down Zetterstrom, and was excluded by referee Frank Ziegler.

Mroczka’s manager Maciej Simionkowski confirmed to the Echo his rider had landed hard on the same ankle he sprained in a track spill for Poole at home to Ipswich on June 9.

But Simionkowski said the Pirate would be fit to line up in Polish League action tomorrow.

Grand Prix of Poland at Torun Qualifying: Tomasz Gollob (3-3-3-3-3) 15, Jason Crump (3-2-3-2-3) 13, Rune Holta (3-3-2-3-1) 12, Jarek Hampel (3-3-1-3-1) 11, Hans Andersen (1-2-2-1-2) 8, Tai Woffinden (2-0-0-3-2) 7, Nicki Pedersen (fell exc-1-2-2-2) 7, Adrian Miedzinski (2-1-0-fell exc-3) 6, Chris Holder (1-2-3-fell exc-ns) 6, Magnus Zetterstrom (1-0-3-1-1) 6, Greg Hancock (2-1-2-1-0) 6, Fredrik Lindgren (1-2-2-0-2) 6, Piotr Protasiewicz (0-0-0-2-3) 5, Chris Harris (2-1-0-1-1) 5, Kenneth Bjerre (0-3-1-0-0) 4, Andreas Jonsson (0-0-1-2-0) 3. Reserves: Artur Mrockza (fell exc) 0, Maciej Janowski dnr.

Referee: Frank Ziegler (Germany).

Ht 1: (re-run) Holta, Miedzinski, Lindgren, Bjerre.

Ht 2: (re-run) Gollob, Hancock, Andersen, Pedersen (fell excluded).

Ht 3: Hampel, Harris, Holder, Protasiewicz.

Ht 4: Crump, Woffinden, Zetterstrom, Jonsson.

Ht 5: Gollob, Crump, Miedzinski, Protasiewicz.

Ht 6: Holta, Andersen, Harris, Zetterstrom.

Ht 7: Bjerre, Holder, Pedersen, Woffinden.

Ht 8: Hampel, Lindgren, Hancock, Jonsson.

Ht 9: Holder, Andersen, Jonsson, Miedzinski.

Ht 10: Gollob, Holta, Hampel, Woffinden.

Ht 11: Zetterstrom, Hancock, Bjerre, Protasiewicz.

Ht 12: Crump, Pedersen, Lindgren, Harris.

Ht 13: (re-run) Hampel, Pedersen, Zetterstrom, Miedzinski (fell excluded).

Ht 14: (re-run) Holta, Crump, Hancock, Holder (fell excluded).

Ht 15: Gollob, Jonsson, Harris, Bjerre.

Ht 16: Woffinden, Protasiewicz, Andersen, Lindgren.

Ht 17: Miedzinski, Woffinden, Harris, Hancock.

Ht 18: Protasiewicz, Pedersen, Holta, Jonsson.

Ht 19: Crump, Andersen, Hampel, Bjerre.

Ht 20: (re-run) Gollob, Lindgren, Zetterstrom, Mroczka (fell excluded).

Semi-finals Ht 21: Gollob, Hampel, Pedersen, Woffinden.

Ht 22: Holta, Crump, Andersen, Miedzinski.

Final Ht 23: Gollob, Holta, Hampel, Crump.

Overall GP standings: (after five rounds of 11) 2 Gollob 78, 2 Hampel 75, 3 Bjerre 59, 4 Crump 58, 5 Holta 48, 6 Jonsson 46, 7 Andersen 46, 8 Pedersen 44, 9 Holder 41, 10 Zetterstrom 37, 11 Harris 36, 12 Hancock 34, 13 Lindgren 33, 14 Sayfutdinov 27, 15 Woffinden 22, 16 Protasiewicz 5. Wild cards and reserves: Janusz Kolodziej 12, Antonio Lindback 6, Miedzinski 6, Madsen 3, Matej Kus 3, Lubos Tomicek 0, Sam Simota 0, Mroczka 0.