It’s a stairway to SEVEN as Poland storms into first place with seven medals at athletics championships
Poland have stormed their way into first place with a stunning seven medals during the European Athletics Indoor Championship.
Although with a total of 12 Great Britain had the most medals, the plucky Poles won more competitions and more golds, repeating the success from two years ago in Belgrade, were Poland also came first with twelve medals and seven golds.
Shot putter Michał Haratyk put Poland into an early lead by claiming gold on Saturday.
The Championship, held on 1-3 March in Glasgow, shone favourably on the Poles from the very beginning with the first victory coming on Saturday when Michał Haratyk claimed gold in shot put.
Delighted Haratyk said: "It hasn’t set in yet, reached me, because I didn’t think about winning before. I’m happier with this medal and this victory, because I went through various misadventures."
Paweł Wojciechowski (centre) and Piotr Lisek (L) took first and second place in men’s pole vault with impressive jumps of 5.90m and 5.85m respectively.
The lucky streak continued on Saturday with Paweł Wojciechowski coming first and Piotr Lisek second in men’s pole vault with the results 5.90m and 5.85m respectively.
The last winner that day was Ewa Swoboda in the 60m race, who improved her result from two years ago, when she came second.
Marcin Lewandowski winning the men’s 1500m. Lewandowski was unbeatable finishing the race with an impressive result of 3.42,85 beating Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen.
Commenting after the race, Swoboda said: “It's been a while since the final, and I still can’t imagine that I won. I thought I was second or third. When I hit my mattress and heard my name, all the tension left me and I cried. I hope that this success will translate into the summer season, which will be very long."
Sofia Ennaoui bagged silver in the women’s 1500m race.
The Polish team kept up their winning streak on the third day of the Championship with Marcin Lewandowski winning men’s 1500m. Lewandowski was unbeatable finishing the race with an impressive result of 3.42,85 beating Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen with 3.43,23. Lewandowski’s medal was followed by Sofia Ennaoui’s silver on the same distance.
Tat’s the way we like! Ewa Soboda couldn’t hide her joy after coming first in the 60m race.
The final medal came from the 4x400m women’s relay, where Anna Kiełbasińska, Iga Baumgart-Witan, Małgorzata Hołub-Kowalik and Justyna Święty-Ersetic dominated the race and achieved a well deserve win. Leading after the first two turns, the runners kept the distance from their rivals until the very end.
Kiełbasińska, who changed from 100 and 200m to 400m last year, said: "Today, I’m a part of something beautiful. I admired these girls, I watched them, and now I'm winning a gold medal with them. I wasn’t lucky in the short relay races, but now I'm harvesting years of very hard work.”
After their stunning 4x400metre relay win by Anna Kiełbasińska, Iga Baumgart-Witan, Małgorzata Hołub-Kowalik and Justyna Święty-Ersetic, Kiełbasińska said: "Today, I’m a part of something beautiful. I admired these girls, I watched them, and now I'm winning a gold medal with them. I wasn’t lucky in the short relay races, but now I'm harvesting years of very hard work.”
Baumgart-Witan added: “We want to reach for the medal of the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2020. We can finish our career there, but we will do everything to be on the podium.”
