News30 May 2005


Rogowska vaults 4.76m and Bieniek high jumps 2.36m – Polish season gets underway!

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Anna Rogowska (POL) (© Getty Images)

Anna Rogowska surprised all athletic fans in Poland with her great opening to the outdoor season on Saturday (28 May). The Olympic women’s Pole Vault bronze medallist competed as a guest star in a juniors meeting in Gdansk and vaulted 4.76m to better the national record, she set in the winter, by one centimetre.

Rogowska, currently third in the IAAF World Rankings for the event, had just returned from a training camp in Formia, where she was unable to practice normally for a couple of days because of a leg injury. Coached by her long-time boyfriend Jacek Torlinski, on Saturday she cleared 4.76m on her first attempt and then tried 4.86m, almost successfully. This was the seventh time she has topped 4.70m in her very short athletics career.

“|’m ready now to fly over 4.80m,” confirmed Rogowska. “This is only a matter of time. Maybe, it will be done on Thursday when I compete in an exhibition Pole Vault at the seaside in Sopot."

"I have just ordered the new Pacer poles, a little bit harder and longer. With those poles I’ll be able to vault 4.80m very soon. I respect all the achievements of the Russian World record holder, Yelena Isinbayeva, but there is no opponent that I’m afraid of,” said the European Indoor silver medallist who is aiming to win the World title in Helsinki, this August.

Rogowska’s competitions over 4.70m
4.71    Thessaloniki,  19 07 2004
4.70    Athina,           24 08 2004
4.70    Spala,            22 01 2005
4.73    Bydgoszcz,    26 01 2005
4.75    Donetsk,         12 02 2005
4.75    Madrid,           06 03 2005
4.76    Gdansk,          28 05 2005 

The Pole Vault show in Gdansk seemed a bit unusual because there wasn’t the normal pressure on Rogowska from her arch-rival Monika Pyrek. Pyrek was competing in Biala Podlaska on the same day, and achieved 4.50m for her own season opening.

Michal Bieniek jumps 2.36m

The men’s High Jump was the final event of the national league meeting in Biala Podlaska (28 May), where a very strong field of four competitors with personal bests of over 2.30m gathered together. However, while Aleksander Walerianczyk (PB 2.36m) and Robert Wolski (PB 2.30m) completely disappointed, the competition was unbelievably exciting because Grzegorz Sposob from Lublin (PB 2.34) and 21-year-old Michal Bieniek from Wroclaw (PB 2.30) had a dramatic duel.

Sposob, who was competing for the first time since his Olympic failure in Athens, took 2.30 on his first attempt but Bieniek responded immediately, lifting his personal best to 2.32m and then jumped 2.36 very easily. Both tried 2.39m but were unable to dethrone Artur Partyka (2.38) who holds the national record mark and who retired five years ago.

Bieniek comes from the small town Gryfino, where he was been involved in basketball, volleyball and soccer. Then he moved to Wroclaw and started the studies at the Sport Academy. There this young athlete met a very experienced coach Boguslaw Manka and thanks to him set the national junior record (2.30m) in 2003. After two years he achieved that height once again becoming Polish indoor champion in Spala this winter. Prior to the outdoor season Bieniek had had very modest expectations but after having performed so well in Biala Podlaska he has become a great hope for Helsinki.

Anna Jesien`s surprising comeback

Another Polish hope is Anna Olichwierczuk-Jesien, a promising runner in 400m Hurdles. Jensien won a bronze medal at the European Championships 2002 in Munich but after that she did not progress anymore and finally decided to change a coach and her training concept, as well. Since November last year, she has been training for five months in New Zealand under the direction of her new coach, Pawel Jesien, who is also her husband.

At the very beginning of this season she set a personal best in 400 meters flat (52.43 seconds) in Poznan, and than performed excellently to the 400m Hurdles with another personal best 54.47. Jesien is now going to try and better the 20-year-old national record of Genowefa Blaszak (54.27).

There was one more surprise in Biala Podlaska. A second place in 100m Hurdles took Kaja Tokarska to a new personal best 13.92. Tokarska beat World Junior silver medallist Agnieszka Frankowska and was cordially applauded by the spectators not only because of that but because she is the daughter of Grazyna Rabsztyn, the former World record holder in the same event (12.36sec), her current coach. 

Maciej Petruczenko for the IAAF

Results
Biala Podlaska, 28 May

Women
400m Hurdles: Anna Jesien 54.47 (PB);
Pole Vault: Monika Pyrek 4.50;
Long Jump: Malgorzata Trybanska 6.60 (PB); 
Shot Put: Krystyna Zabawska 18.79;
Discus Throw: Marzena Wysocka 61.73.

Men
400m: Marek Plawgo 45.92;
5000 meters walk: Ilya Markov (Russia) 19:09.65;
High Jump: 1. Michal Bieniek 2.36 (PB); 2. Grzegorz Sposob 2.30; 3. Robert Wolski 2.21; 4. Aleksander Walerianczyk 2.18; Shot Put: 1. Tomasz Majewski 20.20; 2. Leszek Sliwa 19.48;
Discus Throw: Piotr Malachowski 63.38;
Hammer Throw: Szymon Ziolkowski 76.09.

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