Poland, who topped the medal table when Belgrade hosted the 1969 European Indoor Games, look ready to repeat history in the Serbian capital after naming a formidable team for the impending European Athletics Indoor Championships.
Several members of the squad also featured at this summer’s European Athletics Championships in Amsterdam where Poland topped the table with six golds, five silvers and one bronze.
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Adam Kszczot, who will seek a third European indoor 800m title following his wins in 2011 and 2013, is one of three selected who currently top the European men’s indoor lists.
Apart from Kszczot, who ran 1:46.17 in Dusseldorf on 1 February, there is high jumper Sylvester Bednarek, the 2009 world bronze medallist, who cleared 2.33m on 8 February.
And there is also the European Athletics male athlete of the month for January, Piotr Lisek, who broke his own pole vault record with 5.92m in Cottbus on 25 January, before producing the even grander flourish of 6.00m in Potsdam on 4 February.
It is only a pity that Lisek will not be able to match himself against Renaud Lavillenie, the French world record holder who would have been seeking a fifth consecutive title but for injury.
Lisek will be backed up by Pawel Wojciechowski, the 2011 world champion, whose effort of 5.78m in Lodz on 16 Feb leaves him one place behind his compatriot in the 2017 list.
Marcin Lewandowski, who won the 800m in Prague two years ago to become Poland’s only champion at the last Euro Indoors, goes this year in the 1500m, where he is currently third in the rankings.
There are also big Polish medal chances in the men’s shot put where 19-year-old Konrad Bukowiecki, the European and World junior champion, has already produced a personal best of 21.15m this season to go third in the rankings.
Even without the current top-ranked 800m runner, Joanna Jozwik, who is concentrating on her outdoor season, Poland’s women also offer numerous medal challengers, notably in the high jump, where the joint world indoor champion of 2014, Kamila Licwinko, stands second on the 2017 list with 1.97m behind Lithuania’s Airine Palsyte, who has cleared 2.00m.
Sofia Ennaoui, currently fourth and sixth in the listings for 1500m and 3000m respectively, will run both distances in Belgrade. There are also high hopes for Paulina Guba in the shot put and the 19-year-old European junior champion and world junior silver medallist at 60m, Ewa Swoboda.
It was another great Polish sprinter Irena Szewinska who led the way for Poland in Belgrade 48 years ago. The past and future Olympic champion earned victories in the 50m (6.4sec) and long jump (6.38m) to help her country finish just ahead of the German Democratic Republic with six golds and three silvers.
The other individual golds that year came from Zenon Nowosz, who beat the Soviet Union’s future double Olympic 100/200m champion Valeriy Borzov to gold in the 50m, with both clocking 5.8sec, and 400m runner Jan Balachowski, who ran 47.3 to hold off compatriot Jan Werner (47.4).
Poland’s other golds came in the 4x390m relay and the Medley relay (1950m).