On February 25, the Polish Championships in powerlifting were held in Rybnik. Representing Bolesławiec, Jolanta Anasiewicz took part; it was the first time in her life that she had competed at an event of this rank, and only her second powerlifting competition. Her results achieved previously gave reason for optimism about her performance. She began the first lift, the so-called squat, with 85 kg, which was not too much considering her personal best of 95 kg. However, stage fright, tension and nerves accompanying the debutant caused her to fail all three subsequent attempts at this weight.
At that point, when the emotions finally subsided, our competitor showed her true abilities. She decisively won the next two lifts. In the first, the so-called bench press, at a body weight of 49 kg, she lifted as much as 67.5 kg, which is 15 kg more than the Polish record. In the second, the so-called deadlift, she lifted 105 kg, which is also a Polish record.
These results were noticed. Janusz Tracewski, a representative of the Office of Physical Culture and Tourism, assured our coach, Sławomir Respondek, that with this level of form, the Bolesławiec competitor, as the only woman, had a guaranteed place on the Polish national team and would travel with the squad to the World Championships in the USA. The results achieved by Ms Jolanta were an enormous surprise to experts—quite unbelievable.
If the anti-doping tests to which all outstanding competitors are subjected produce valid results, we will have another representative at a major international sporting event.