Coach Dariusz Pachnik:
Travelling to this competition was a real expedition, as the event took place in the Lublin region (i.e. more than 600 km from here). The first race was held early on Friday afternoon. We did not take part in that race, but we heard that the terrain was difficult, compounded by wading through knee-deep mud.
We experienced this ourselves while approaching the competition centre on Saturday. The forest was also wet, which made it difficult to “scramble” out of deep ravines.
Our first start was the classic race in the village of Otrocz, about 50 km south of Lublin. Rather unexpectedly, Gracjan Dwojak (M12) performed best in our team, reaching the podium at such an important event for the first time in his career. (Gracjan finished third.) Jędrek Pachnik, competing in the same category, finished sixth. Stasiu Pachnik, in the highly competitive M16 category, placed ninth.
The coach adds:
Sunday featured a sprint race in the Czuby housing estate in Lublin. The youngsters performed brilliantly here. Jędrek won his category, while Stachu finished second. Gracek had a weaker race, but overall his progress is clear, and he will certainly be in contention during the Youngest Competitors’ Cup. In total, we won three medals.
