Dariusz Pachnik, coach:

Two events were held: a night race on Saturday and a middle-distance race on Sunday. The competition terrain was very distinctive, essentially entirely more or less marshy, and in places featuring highly developed microrelief resulting from the activities of people searching there for so-called sod iron ores. It is not our favourite type of terrain. We most often train in areas with pronounced relief, sometimes with large quantities of stones and rocks.

Night race

Coach:

The night race was a festival of mistakes, which sometimes produced rather surprising results. In the junior category (M18), third place and the bronze medal went to Stanisław Pachnik, who slipped and fell at the last control point. At the finish, Jakub Jończy, representing WKS „Śląsk” Wrocław, took advantage of this and claimed second place on the podium. Mateusz Kula of KOS BnO Szczecin won the category.

Our younger junior, Jędrzej Pachnik, unfortunately coped somewhat less well in those circumstances and ultimately finished fifth, clearly below his abilities and expectations.

Our team was also represented by Maja Nikołajuk, who is still a youth competitor, but the regulations allowed her to compete in the night race together with the younger juniors. In this truly distinctive terrain, where navigation was very difficult, especially at night, she finished twentieth, which was genuinely impressive for a debut.

Małgorzata Pachnik can speak of considerable bad luck. In the women’s elite category, she was matching the Polish national-team competitors and ran “at the front” during the first part of the course. Unfortunately, Małgosia has a visual impairment that requires her to wear contact lenses during competitions. During the race, a branch struck her and caused her lens to fold; this unfortunate incident eliminated her from the fight for a medal. She is, however, a very ambitious person and tried to finish the race “with one eye”. An analysis of the GPS track clearly shows when the problems began.

View photo: Runners from Iwiny at the Polish Championships near Niekłań Wielki View photo: Runners from Iwiny at the Polish Championships near Niekłań Wielki View photo: Runners from Iwiny at the Polish Championships near Niekłań Wielki

Our team also included Wojtek Pachnik in the men’s elite category and Dariusz Pachnik in the masters M50 category. Wojtek withdrew during the race, while Dariusz Pachnik, despite a poor start, ran very well and came within a small step of the gold medal. However, two controls before the finish, his headlamp failed and he was “left in the dark”. The penultimate control was not far away, and he managed to reach it by stumbling through complete darkness. From the penultimate control, he ran with one of the M35 competitors, and it turned out that he was second in his category, 15 seconds behind the leader!!!

The competitor himself:

Well, bad luck and good fortune are inseparable parts of sport, and we have to accept that.

Middle-distance race

Club:

On Sunday, after a short recovery consisting of several hours of sleep, we lined up at the start of the middle-distance race. Naturally, as always, we were aiming for medals. In the M18 category, Stasiu Pachnik was one of the main favourites for victory, and he did not disappoint. He won confidently, with an advantage of more than one and a half minutes over night-race winner Mateusz Kula and Zbigniew Bartos of UKS „Orientuś” Łódź.

The most exciting contest was between the two younger juniors: Bartek Maciejewski, representing BKS „Wataha” Warszawa and the winner of the night race, and our Jędrek. Their race times were almost identical. Bartek hesitated only once, and Jędrek was a dozen or so seconds faster there. Jędrek, in turn, made a mistake in choosing a route option to another control, which cost him 40 seconds. Ultimately, Bartek won by just 27 seconds. Their average pace would have placed them near the beginning of the second ten in the men’s elite category!!! These two young boys are clearly ahead of the rest of the younger juniors in terms of level, and it seems that they will be fighting for gold medals in the remaining championships. They also offer hope of a good result at the Junior European Championships, scheduled to take place in Lithuania in August.

Dariusz Pachnik sums up:

In just one week, there will be another opportunity for an exciting contest at the Polish Club Championships, held in Włocławek. Returning to the Championships, it is worth noting that Małgorzata Pachnik achieved a very high sixth place in the women’s elite category.

The coach himself did not defend last year’s championship title at this distance and recorded the sixth time on his course. Wojciech Pachnik finished 19th in the men’s elite category.

The coach of UKS Orientpark.pl Iwiny notes:

Our team’s medal haul is four medals: one gold, two silver and one bronze. Not bad!

Results