Dariusz Pachnik from the Orientpark.pl club:
The youngest orienteers competed last weekend in Warsaw in Poland’s most important event for children under 14. Its official name is Puchar Najmłodszych. Unofficially, it is treated as the Polish Championships for these age categories.
We set off for the competition with an 11-member team aged between 10 and 14. Despite their young age, most already had at least two years of orienteering experience, while the oldest, 14-year-old Stanisław Pachnik, has been running independently in the forest since he was eight. There were also debutants (Wiktoria Kulka and Gracjan Dwojak).
Last year, we won as many as six Puchar Najmłodszych medals and finished eighth in the team classification. It was our greatest achievement so far in these age categories. We knew it would be difficult to repeat, but as they say, appetite grows with eating.
We travelled to Warsaw early on Tuesday morning to complete several training sessions on site, in terrain typical of Mazovia. As it turned out, the flat, sandy terrain, with highly developed microrelief in places, caused considerable problems for our young forest-navigation athletes. The idea of training beforehand in the forests near Warsaw proved to be a good one.
On the public holiday Thursday (Corpus Christi), we took a break from orienteering and decided to do some sightseeing in our capital. We visited Warsaw’s obligatory landmarks: the Old Town, Łazienki, Belweder and Wilanów. On Friday, we waited for the first start: a sprint race that was to take place in an urban area of the Ursynów district.
Once a barren housing estate (the series “Alternatywy 4” was filmed there), today—more than 30 years after its construction—beautifully green and varied, it proved to be a truly interesting sprint venue. We hoped to win our first medals there. Karolina Zawada had the best start, competing in the K12 category. She did not disappoint, although she herself felt slightly dissatisfied because she missed the gold medal by just nine seconds. Ultimately, she finished second and won a silver medal (or rather, a trophy). Our other athletes also finished in very high positions, but none managed to win a medal.
The first twelve competitors in each category scored points toward the team classification. Of our 11-member team, only two finished lower down the rankings!!! Thanks to this performance, after the first day of competition we were in a very high sixth place!!! There were 34 clubs from across Poland in the club standings! Ahead of us—and behind us—were clubs with truly great traditions.
Results of the runners from Iwiny:
- 2nd place – Karolina Zawada (K12)
- 5th place – Stanisław Pachnik (M14) and Gracjan Dwojak (M11)
- 6th place – Marcelina Zawada (K10) and Jędrzej Pachnik (M11)
- 9th place – Honorata Kowalczyk (K11), Wiktoria Kowalczyk (K13)
- 10th place – Julia Halewicz (K10)
- 12th place – Emilia Piecek (K14)
- Sonia Szeliga finished 15th (in a field of nearly 50 competitors), while debutant Wiktoria Kulka finished 25th.
D. Pachnik:
The next day featured the classic-distance race. The organizers chose the forests in Stara Miłosna, near the old hippodrome. We knew these forests would be an advantage for local competitors and those who train every day in flat terrain. Nevertheless, we had to take up the challenge—and we managed. There were not many medals, just two bronze ones, but once again almost everyone fought for a place in the top ten. Karolina Zawada won her second medal, while Jędrek Pachnik claimed his first at this competition. Stanisław Pachnik and Marcelina Zawada finished fourth. Gracjan Dwojak came very close again: two control points before the finish, he was in third place, but youthful enthusiasm got the better of him and he made a huge mistake, dropping to 19th. Wiktoria Kowalczyk was similarly close to a medal, but she failed to control her emotions and ultimately fell from second to eighth after a navigation error.
Honorata Kowalczyk (6th place) and Emilia Piecek (7th) recorded very solid runs. This time, Julia Halewicz finished 15th, while Wiktoria Kulka confirmed the wrong control point and was not classified.
We knew that, as a team, we had performed more than solidly, but we did not know how the other clubs had fared. The organizer added up the points and… UNTS Warszawa took first place (the competition hosts), MKS MOS Wrocław second, Wawel Kraków third and…
Yes, that’s right; it seemed somewhat surreal: fourth place for UKS Orientpark.pl Iwiny, a small club from an even smaller town! A shock—I do not know whether it was greater for us or for the other clubs. Of course, we knew that maintaining this position after the relay race would be impossible, because we had only two complete relay teams, while the other two were formed jointly with MKS Paulinum Jelenia Góra as the Dolny Śląsk team (the rules allow teams to be combined within one province). For example, UNTS Warszawa entered 19 relay teams—that is 57 people!!! Nevertheless, it was very pleasant to enjoy the position for at least one day. Our young athletes were highly motivated and… perhaps became too tense, because the next day, Sunday, almost everything went against us. It seemed everything would be fine: Staś Pachnik finished level with a competitor from Łódź, with a considerable lead over the following teams (30 teams competed in this category). However, it turned out that at a so-called split (control points located very close to one another), Stachu failed to check the code and confirmed that he had visited the wrong control point, and… the entire relay team was disqualified. It is only small consolation that ten other teams made similar mistakes, including all three teams that had occupied the top three places. As in any relay, in orienteering as well, one weaker leg is enough for the entire team to be eliminated. The pressure of responsibility is especially troublesome in this sport, where, in addition to physical fitness, competitors must make wise, accurate decisions under pressure, stress and rapidly passing time.
Everyone fought bravely, and our girls competing in the K14 category finished fifth, while the K10 team came seventh. In the M12 category, the weak link turned out to be the “new recruit” from Jelenia Góra, who got lost and reached the finish after an expedition lasting more than an hour (the best competitors completed their legs in under 20 minutes). Thus Jędrek Pachnik did not “fold” on the course again, running calmly, as if in training, in 23 minutes, which ultimately gave him 12th place.
As we predicted, we dropped in the standings, but not by all that much. Ultimately, we remained in the TOP 10, in eighth place, repeating last year’s achievement. We scored a total of 129 points; we were 58 points short of third place, which was probably beyond our reach, but fourth place was just 17 points away!!! For example, first place in the relay was worth 25 points, so…. Next year, we will certainly fight for it!!!
Full competition results are available at: https://pucharnajmlodszych.pl/wyniki/.