The Polish Championships of Junior People’s Sports Teams in Athletics took place in Biała Podlaska. The young athletes from Bolesławiec finished fourth out of 85 competing clubs.
The athletes coached by Małgorzata Markowska performed excellently. Maciej Goss has already accustomed us to victories and personal bests. This time he did not disappoint either, winning the gold medal in the 400 m hurdles and setting a new personal best (53.22 s), currently the second-best result in Poland in the junior category. Maciek also finished sixth in the 110 m hurdles and sixth in the 100 m (11.48 s). Unfortunately, in the first event he was unable to improve his qualifying time (14.98), which could have earned him a medal in that discipline.
Dominika Kamińska won silver in the 2 km steeplechase (7:13.49 min), as did Wojciech Karaban, who competed in the same distance (6:13.61 min). Monika Chmielik, who is increasingly in form, produced a major surprise by finishing third in the 100 m hurdles (15.53 s) and fourth in the 100 m (12.82 s). Mateusz Kopeć finished seventh in the 2 km steeplechase (6:37.06).
Coached by Bartosz Gruman Damian Gradzik, after a magnificent battle, won the bronze medal in the high jump (1.92 m), improving his best result by 2 cm.
As usual, the athletes coached by Tomasz Markowski brought home a haul of medals. Dawid Kopała won gold in the hammer throw (59.34), while Monika Sandak won gold in the javelin (40.84 m) and bronze in the discus throw (33.09 m). The seventh-ranked European athlete in the qualification for the 2014 Youth Olympic Games, Kacper Olszewski, had to settle this time for silver in the shot put (17.92 m) and another silver in the discus throw (51.98 m). Wojciech Kutryba finished sixth in the hammer throw (47.18 m).
The athlete coached by Ryszard Posacki Paweł Jóźwiak engaged in a thrilling battle for first place in the triple jump. The gold medal remained undecided until the final round of jumps. Jumping as if in a trance—and to huge applause from the crowd—Paweł set a personal best in every final attempt. With his final jump of 13.92 m, he confirmed his dominance in this event at the championships. This result currently places him second in Poland. It should be noted that the day before, our jumper also finished second in the long jump (6.68 m).
“I jumped wonderfully today. I love this atmosphere. The crowd in the stands encouraged us to jump farther and farther. Today it helped me the most, but all my fellow jumpers deserve recognition, because it was a truly wonderful competition. I would like to thank my friends and coaches for their support and help during the jumps. I hope I will produce another surprise this year,” Paweł said after the competition.
The men’s 4x400 m relay came within a step of a medal, missing bronze by less than 1.5 seconds. Our athletes, running in the lineup of Damian Gradzik, Mateusz Kopeć, Maciej Goss and Wojciech Karaban, crossed the finish line in a very good time (3:31.84 min).
(information: D. Łomański/ii)