The Polish Indoor Championships for Juniors and U18 Juniors were held from 23 to 26 January at the Olympic Preparation Centre in Spała. Bolesławiec was represented by six athletes. During the first two days, the multi-event athletes competed. Damian Gradzik, coached by Tomasz Markowski and Bartosz Gruman, scored 4,141 points in seven events and finished fifth.
The greatest excitement surrounded the performances of Kacper Olszewski in the shot put (coach Tomasz Markowski) and Ewa Ochocka in the 60 m hurdles (coach Małgorzata Markowska). Both began their competitions only on Saturday.
In the morning qualifiers, Ewa won her heat without the slightest difficulty and, with the third-best time (8.83), advanced to the final. Two hours later, in the 60 m hurdles final, she moved up one place and, with a time of 8.77, won the title of Polish indoor runner-up.
In the shot put competition, Kacper Olszewski secured advancement to the championship’s top eight with his second throw. After the first three throws, he was in third place. The fifth round proved fortunate for the talented shot-putter. Kacper sent the shot 17 m 68 cm, moving into second place and winning the Polish U18 junior runner-up title.
In the 400 m race, Maciej Goss (coach Małgorzata Markowska) finished 11th with a time of 51.09. Grzegorz Oślak, coached by Paweł Wiśniewski, finished seventh in the race walk, improving his personal best in the junior 5,000 m event to 24:11.31.
Also competing in Spała was Ryszard Posacki’s athlete, Maciej Buciak. In the heats, with the sixth-best time of 7.26, he qualified for the championship’s top eight. Unfortunately, he did not finish the final.
(information: Justyna Serafińska-Gruman/ii)