The Polish Orienteering Championships, held on June 1–3 in Poznań and around the town of Czerwonak (Greater Poland Voivodeship), ended in success for the runners from Iwiny. The gold medal was won by Małgosia Szeliga. Bartek Szeliga, Marek Wojnowicz and Angelika Haniszewska won silver medals. Below, we present an account submitted by UKS Tukan Iwiny:
The first day of the Polish Championships (Friday, June 1) featured sprint-distance competition. The venue was quite characteristic of Poznań: the area around Lake Malta. In our opinion, the sprint was held on terrain that did not quite meet the requirements of an event of this rank. It was impossible to build courses with greater technical demands there, but we have no reason to complain, because our Małgosia Szeliga won the Polish Championship title there for the second time in her career. It was her first title, however, in the sprint distance. She won her race by just one second, in rather dramatic circumstances. At one of the control points, there was a partially malfunctioning electronic reader responsible for confirming a competitor’s visit to the control point. When Gosia reached that point, it turned out that the reader was not working. Of course, such things happen, and the rules regulate situations of this kind. Our competitor followed the applicable procedures: she found a special “box” on her map and, using the punch hanging from the control-point stand, confirmed her presence at the point. Immediately after Małgosia, a rival whom she had overtaken earlier reached the point and witnessed the entire situation. The station, however, proved more favorable to her. The competitor confirmed the point instantly, using the chip carried by every competitor. She even managed to shout to the departing Gosia that the “can” was working! Fearing disqualification, Małgosia returned to the point once more and… again found that the reader was not working. Slightly distracted, she ran on, and the finish proved extremely happy for her, her coach and the entire team – the gold medal at the Polish Championships in the K-20 category.
The second medal of the day for Tukan was won by coach Dariusz Pachnik, who finished third in the M40 veterans’ category. Our other competitors also performed quite well. Bartek Szeliga (M16) was leading through control point 12. However, he made a serious mistake at the next point, which cost him 1 minute 9 seconds, and he lost gold by 1 minute 2 seconds. Ultimately, he finished in sixth place. Marek Wojnowicz (M20) finished fifth, 13 seconds short of the podium. Angelika Haniszewska also “went astray” at one point and ended up in the second ten.
On the second day of the championships, we moved north of Poznań, to the area around Czerwonak. The middle-distance race was held there. Małgosia Szeliga was defending the Polish Championship title she had won the previous year. Although a year earlier she had competed in the lower K18 category, now, as an under-21 competitor (K20), she did not manage to reach the podium and finished sixth. However, the medal and the title of Polish Vice-Champion in the K18 category went to her younger clubmate Angelika Haniszewska, who lost only to Maria Drągowska of Victoria Józefów. Bartek Szeliga and Marek Wojnowicz also won medals of the same color that day. In total, Tukan won three silver medals that day.
Sunday was devoted to relay races. We had three teams: a younger junior relay, a women’s junior relay and a senior relay. We knew that a top-ten finish for the senior relay would be a great result; they ultimately placed 11th. We were counting on the junior women’s team and, with a little luck, on the younger juniors. On the first leg, our junior women lost their medal chances, but the second and third legs steadily improved the poor result, ultimately placing fourth. The situation was reversed for the younger juniors. After the first leg, we were in the medal zone. Three teams arrived almost simultaneously: MKS Paulinum Jelenia Góra, Azymut 45 Gdynia and our relay, with Marcin Wieczorek. Paweł Werda ran the second leg for us. He seemed likely to be the weakest link, but once again sport showed its unpredictable side. How surprised we were when Paweł was the first to appear at the so-called viewing point. True, the awareness of leading and the responsibility that came with it were apparently too much for him, and mistakes in the second part of the course dropped him to fourth place. However, on the final leg we had Bartek Szeliga (the newly crowned Polish Vice-Champion). The gap to third place was just a few seconds, so everything was still open. The emotions were intense. Staring at the forest wall in an attempt to spot our competitor was exhausting and stressful. Unfortunately, Bartek apparently wanted to “pull away” from his rival too quickly and began making mistakes right at the start, with the opposite result. Bartek was left behind, while his rival raced for a medal, overtaking a competitor from Jelenia Góra along the way and winning silver. All that remained for us was to watch from fourth place as rivals from Gdynia, Jelenia Góra and Kraków collected the medals.
The Polish Championships also served as the final races determining places at the European Championships (KM16–18 categories) and the World Championships (KM20 categories). Angelika Haniszewska, Małgorzata Szeliga and Bartek Szeliga from the UKS Tukan Iwiny team secured places qualifying them for the Polish Junior Team. However, the final decision on the composition and number of competitors traveling to the world events will be made in the coming days by the board of the Polish Orienteering Federation.
(information: UKS Tukan Iwiny/ii)