We recently reported that Stanisław Pachnik, a resident of Lubków (Warta Bolesławiecka municipality), had been selected for Poland’s national team for the European Orienteering Championships. Last weekend, the young runner from our county confirmed his ability by winning two Polish Championship medals: one in the classic distance and the other in the relay.
The competitions took place near Piechowice (the classic race) and Przesieka (the relays). The classic race was held on Saturday. The mountainous terrain was highly selective. The technical difficulties, and above all the physical demands, took their toll on everyone. In some categories, the time differences among the leading competitors were enormous. However, in the M16 category, the top three were close together.
Stasiu ran for 72 minutes and 9 seconds, finishing behind only Mikołaj Pater (HKS Azymut Mochy) by 45 seconds, while beating Jan Sztrank (Azymut Pabianice) by just over a minute and a half. All three are members of the national team for the European Championships (June 28–30 in Belarus).
Dariusz Pachnik, coach:
On Sunday, we moved to Przesieka for the relay race. The terrain was also mountainous, but the courses had much less elevation gain and, above all, were considerably shorter.
Stasiu was assigned the third (last) leg for the MKS Paulinum Jelenia Góra team. We knew that the team was capable of achieving a good result.
Adrian Sobiński ran the first leg and came in sixth, almost five minutes behind the leaders, UKS Orientuś Łodź. Jakub Jończy ran the second leg, and we hoped he would make up at least some of the deficit. Unfortunately, Kuba’s run did not go as he would have wished. We did move up one place, but the gap to the leaders increased to seven minutes, while the gap to the podium was about four minutes!!!
Stasiu set off with tremendous energy, immediately beginning to make up ground. At the so-called spectator control, he was already third, more than a minute behind the Śląsk Wrocław team. Stasiu covered the final section of the course at a fantastic pace, and at the penultimate control point he was already within visual contact of the competitor from Wrocław. His rival then made a route-choice error, which Stasiu exploited ruthlessly, moving into second place at the final control point before the finish.
At the finish, we celebrated becoming Polish Championship runners-up!!! Stasiu recorded the best time in his category!!!
D. Pachnik adds:
The Polish Championships were very successful for us, and his improving form ahead of the trip to Belarus gives us plenty of optimism. There, we are mainly counting on a good performance in the sprint race, in which Staś feels most comfortable.