News15 Aug 2011


Performances triumph over bad weather at Polish Champs – Daegu squad announced

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Anita Wlodarczyk throwing at the 2011 Polish Championships (© Marek Biczyk)

This year's edition of the Polish Championships in Bydgoszcz (11-13 August), which decided the final composition of the national team for the forthcoming IAAF World Championships (Daegu, Korea, 27 Aug to 4 Sep), was spoiled by three days of rain but still featured high-class performances.


World Hammer Throw champion Anita Wlodarczyk reassured her fans throwing 73.05 in only her second start this season. Six weeks ago during Kusocinski Memorial her best result was below 70m. Wlodarczyk has been fighting with injuries since the memorable final of World Championships in Berlin, which brought her the gold medal, a World record and a plaster on her leg after an injury sustained celebrating her winning throw.


The poor weather conditions at last weekend's championships meant that the women’s Pole Vault competition was moved from the first day to the second and was still held-up for more than half an hour due to the heavy rain. World champion Anna Rogowska, having had a one and half month break, won with 4.60. She was very eager to start after her injury which she sustained on the 29 June when her pole was broke and her hand was deeply cut. Monika Pyrek jumped the same height which is her season’s best. Both were very satisfied with their form.


Both women’s sprint distances titles went to the local Bydgoszcz athlete Marika Popowicz who repeated her success achieved in the same stadium two years ago. However, there was further upset for Poland’s 4x100m relay hopes as in a 100m heat Daria Korczynska, the best Polish runner of the last years, sustained a leg injury. This follows disappointment followed the injury of Weronika Wedler, the winner in the 100m and 200m at last year’s Championships, who’ll also not be in Daegu.


However, a sigh of relief was breathed by Jozef Lisowski, long-term coach of 4x400m relay team, after the 400m final. His trump ace Marcin Marciniszyn showed form winning on the wet track in 45.27, and for the first time below 46sec was Piotr Wiaderek, who joins the national relay team. In the heat, Adam Kszczot, European Indoor 800m champion, scared some of the specialist 400m runners with his personal best of 46.51, almost half a second better than previously. In the final he was the 5th with 46.81.


Marcin Lewandowski, the greatest rival of Kszczot, won his first title at 800m. He was the leader for almost the whole distance winning with a solid 1:46.28. It was a good occasion for the next three on the finishing line who set personal bests; Artur Ostrowski (son of Ryszard, the 4th in World Champs in Rome) was the fastest of them, running 1:46.66.


Lukasz Kujawski left Bydgoszcz with two unexpected gold medals, as the winner in 5000m (14:06.96) and 3000m Steeplechase (8:40.22). In the latter the leader until the last water barrier was Lukasz Parszczynski, who has improved this year with his personal best to 8:15.47. Unfortunately he fell down and while he got up and finished third, already ahead was Krystian Zalewski, who in the last ten metres was over-taken for the victory by Lukasz Kujawski, who only debuted in the Steeplechase this year.


Before the Championships the only candidate for the World Championships standard in the 110m Hurdles was Artur Noga, the 5th placer at the Olympic Games in Beijing, and the Polish leader this season (13.52). At the end Noga, still struggling with injuries, missed the time required, but local hurdler Dominik Bochenek (only 1.79m) surprised everybody. After a great start, with a reaction time 0.130, he ran very smoothly beating his personal best by 12/100, finishing in 13.44.


In a very interesting men’s Pole Vault competition, it was not the well-known Lukasz Michalski and Pawel Wojciechowski in the limelight but Mateusz Didenkow. He improved his personal best jumping on his third attempt 5.72m, the height being the ‘A’ qualification for Daegu. Michalski also succeeded at that height on his third attempt, and with both men not having failed earlier, and neither man wanting to  continue to break the tie they shared the gold. Third place was taken by Pawel Wojciechowski, Polish season leader with 5.81m, who had a best of 5.60 that afternoon.


The gold medal was also shared by Magdalena Ogrodnik and Karolina Gronau (1.88) in the women’s High Jump.


Olympic champion Tomasz Majewski easily won the Shot Put, with 20.94m on his fourth attempt, taking his 9th national title. A first senior medal was taken by 18-year-old Krzysztof Brzozowski, in third place with 19.18m.


European Champion Piotr Malachowski was surprisingly only second in the Discus Throw. He was not at his best in the slight rain throwing only 63.21m which was 60cm less than 22-year-old Przemyslaw Czajkowski who won the national tile and also dreamed about Daegu, but his season’s best is too short (64.21).


In the Hammer Throw, Szymon Ziolkowski, with his first win of the season confirmed his better form winning his 13th national title. His result of 78.79m was only 23cm short of his season’s best achieved in Castres, France in July. Pawel Fajdek, the European U-23 champion threw 77.87m in the last round and will also fly to Daegu.


In the men’s Javelin Throw, no thrower exceeded 80m but for the audience the rivalry was still very exciting. Having a very good season Igor Janik was the leader with 79.14 from the second round, while in the fifth Pawel Rakoczy improved to 79.33, but in the last round Lukasz Grzeszczuk leapt from fourth to first with 79.73m, so taking his first national title.


In the women’s middle distances two gold medals went to Angelika Cichocka, though she had a tough fight with Danuta Urbanik in the 800m. In 1500m, 38-year-old Anna Jakubczak won the bronze ahead of Lidia Chojecka. But the latter won the 5000m in 15:46.88 and nine of ten runners finishing next behind her set personal bests.


Good shape before Daegu was shown by heptathlete Karolina Tyminska, the winner of the individual sprint hurdles with an excellent 13.37sec and a second place in the Long Jump (6.54) which took place in the rain. The best jumper was Malgorzata Trybanska (6.65 LJ and 14.08 TJ) who added two golds to her collection of 35 medals won in indoor and outdoor national senior championships.


The championships in Bydgoszcz were the last chance for injured hurdlers, two bronze medallists from World Championships in Osaka, Marek Plawgo and Anna Jesien to get their tickets to Daegu. Marek started this season on the 16 July after almost 24 months of break. He won his 8th title, achieved season’s best but failed to run below 50sec (50.11). Anna Jesien moved away from the blocks quite well but in the beginning of the finishing straight she felt pain in her leg. She ended the race quite slowly, with Tina Polak winning in a 55.90 second personal best.


Janusz Rozum for the IAAF


Click here for RESULTS (pdf)


Polish team for the World Championships (season best in parentheses):


Men

100m: Dariusz Kuc (10.15)

400m: Marcin Marciniszyn (45.27)

800m: Adam Kszczot (1:44.30); Marcin Lewandowski (1:44.61),

3000m steeplechase: Lukasz Parszczynski (8:15.47)

110m hurdles: Dominik Bochenek (13.44)

Pole vault: Pawel Wojciechowski (5.81), Lukasz Michalski (5.72), Mateusz Didenkow (5.72)

Shot put: Tomasz Majewski (21.60)

Discus throw: Piotr Malachowski (68.49)

Hammer throw: Szymon Ziolkowski (79.02), Pawel Fajdek (78.54)

Javelin throw: Igor Janik (82.81)

20km walk: Rafal Augustyn (1:20:57)

50km walk: Rafal Fedaczynski (3:46:05), Rafal Sikora (3:46:16), Grzegorz Sudol

4x100m: Dariusz Kuc, Kamil Krynski, Robert Kubaczyk, Kamil Masztak, Pawel Stempel, Artur Zaczek

4x400m: Marcin Marciniszyn, Jan Ciepiela, Mateusz Formanski, Kacper Kozlowski, Jakub Krzewina, Piotr Wiaderek


Women

100m: Marta Jeschke (11.33)

200m: Anna Kielbasinska (23.23)

1500m: Renata Plis (4:04.57)

Pole vault: Anna Rogowska (4.75), Monika Pyrek (4.60)

Long Jump: Teresa Dobija (6.78)

Triple jump: Anna Jagaciak (14.25)

Discus throw: Zaneta Glanc (62.13)

Hammer throw: Anita Wlodarczyk (73.05), Joanna Fiodorow (70.06)

Heptathlon: Karolina Tyminska (6516)

4x100m: Marta Jeschke, Anna Kielbasinska, Dorota Jedrusinska, Agnieszka Ligieza, Marika Popowicz, Ewelina Ptak


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