The 18th Polish Open & 14th Warsaw Cup taekwondo tournament was held in Warsaw from 9 to 11 September. Nearly 670 athletes competed, including the UKS Ilyo Bolesławiec team (consisting of: Matusz Boczarski, Wiktoria Knapczyk, Paulina Stojanowska, Remigiusz Różnicki, Kamil Serafin and Yevgen Nikitin).
The team’s only senior athlete, Yevgen Nkitin, won his first bout against a Slovak opponent. Unfortunately, in the next bout—despite an excellent start—he lost to Korean athlete Sueng Woo Lee, who later won gold in the senior -68 kg category.
Remigiusz Różnicki (-55 kg junior category) defeated Hungary’s Kristo Frigyes, but then lost to Belarusian athlete Anton Chumachenka. Mateusz Boczarski and favourite Kamil Serafin also lost to representatives of Belarus.
The gold medals were won by junior Paulina Stojanowska and cadet Wiktoria Knapczyk. Paulina defeated, among others, British athlete Beth Worthington, who is highly ranked in the European taekwondo rankings, and won the final against Klaudia Włodarczak (Borne Sulinowo), a participant in last year’s World Taekwondo Championships. This is Paulina’s third gold medal. In the final, Wiktoria proved better than Nikola Wojtków, a taekwondo athlete from Zgorzelec.
The coach and head of the Bolesławiec club is Mariusz Sulma.
(information: UKS Ilyo/ii)