Last Saturday and Sunday, Bolesłavia representatives took part in the annual competition titled Multi-Event Spring, held in Wrocław. Mateusz Tofil performed excellently; competing in the six-event competition, he came close to improving the Polish youth record.
Mateusz performed brilliantly from the start of the competition, improving his personal best in almost every event (100 m – 11.71 s; long jump – 6.12 m; shot put – 9.22 m; 110 m hurdles – 15.31 s; javelin – 44.22 m). Unfortunately, the bitter cold on the first day adversely affected the athletes’ performances, particularly in the field events. “If not for the terrible weather conditions, the Polish record would certainly have been broken,” Mateusz’s coaches, Paweł Wiśniewski and Bartosz Gruman, emphasize.
Before the final event—the 1,000 m—Matusz knew that, to set a new Polish record, he would have had to improve his personal best by as much as 9 seconds. That is a great deal. Mateusz fought alone against the clock from the start and recorded 2:55.55 in a fine run. Ultimately, the Bolesłavia athlete scored 3,786 points, falling just 74 points short of the record.
“Everything was going well from the start of the competition. Unfortunately, the weather conditions were awful on the first day, and there was little I could do in some events. I still have a lot to improve, especially in the throwing events. If someone had started the 1,000 m and led the race, I think we could have run even faster. However, this is only the beginning of the season, and I’m optimistic,” says Mateusz.
Mateusz Kwieciński made his multi-event debut, ultimately finishing fourth with 2,481 points.
The under-18 multi-event competition was also won by another athlete coached by Bartosz Gruman—Damian Gradzik, who scored 5,870 points, finishing ahead of last year’s Polish champion in the event. During the competition, Damian set a personal best in the pole vault—3.60 m.
“I did not expect such a good performance at the beginning of the season. My result in the pole vault is the biggest surprise for me. I train in the pole vault only at training camps, because there is no opportunity to train in this event in Bolesławiec,” says Damian.
At the same time as the multi-events, individual events were held as part of the meet. In his second event already, qualification for the Youth Olympic Games was achieved by Kacper Olszewski, in addition to the shot put. The athlete coached by Tomasz Markowski threw 56.69 m in the discus, exceeding the Polish Athletics Association standard of 55.00 m.
The following athletes also performed very well, improving their personal and season bests: Wojciech Kutryba in the hammer throw (46.12 m), Joel Kusiciel in the 300 m (41.22 s), Dominik Stec in the discus (41.48 m) and javelin (52.51 m), Karolina Wolska in the 800 m (2:32.28), Ewa Ochocka in the 300 m (40.23 s), Monika Sandak in the javelin (42.83 m) and discus (33.92 m); in the 110 m hurdles—Kacper Tałocha (16.84 s) and Kacper Popławski (17.33 s); and Agnieszka Bosek in the hammer throw (39.53 m).
Maciej Goss also confirmed his excellent form. Competing in his specialist event—the 400 m hurdles—for the first time this season, he recorded 54.70 s, only 0.20 s slower than his personal best. Dawid Kopała recorded 59.57 m in the hammer throw.
Bolesłavia’s female and male athletes have more competitions ahead. Next Saturday there will be a meet in Wrocław, followed a week later by the Lower Silesian Athletics Championships in Bogatynia.
(information: Dariusz Łomański/ii)