The Polish Athletics Championships celebrated its centenary anniversary edition at the Zawisza Stadium in Bydgoszcz from 27-29 June.
This was the 15th time Bydgoszcz has staged the championships which was highlighted by many of their medal-winners from the recent European Athletics Championships who will now set their sights on the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Among the winners were recently crowned European 400m champion Natalia Kaczmarek - who broke Irena Szewinska’s legendary Polish 400m record of 49.29 to win gold in Rome in 48.98 - who won the 400m title in 50.77. 2022 European champion Pia Skrzyszowska won the 100m hurdles title in 12.67 while world record-holder Anita Wlodarczyk came away with a record 11th hammer title with 72.06m.
A history dating back to 1920
By contrast, when the first Polish Championships were held in 1920 (the 1940-44 editions didn't take place due to World War II), only men took part and championship titles were awarded only to competitors who surpassed the Olympic qualifying standards for Antwerp 1920 as set by the Polish Athletics Association (PZLA) which was founded just one year prior in 1919.
Only four competitors managed to achieve this feat - the winners of the 100 meters (Stanislaw Sosnicki) and 800m (Waclaw Kuchar) along with pole vaulter Kazimierz Cybulski and Slawosz Szydlowski in discus and javelin - although Poland were unable to compete in Antwerp 1920 owing to the ongoing war with the Bolsheviks, forcing the country to postpone its Olympic debut to Paris 1924 when 14 athletes took part.
And while the first Polish Athletics Championships was a male-only affair, Poland was one of the first countries to add women’s events to their national championships programme. The first Polish Championships to include women’s events came just two years later in Warsaw 1922 - incidentally six years before women’s athletics made its Olympic Games debut in Amsterdam 1928.
In recent years, Poland has been one of the powerhouses of athletics in Europe as well as one of the most prolific hosts of major continental and global athletics events, including the 2019, 2021 and 2023 editions of the European Athletics Team Championships - the latter in conjunction with the 2023 European Games - as well as the Toruń 2021 European Athletics Indoor Championships, the first major event to take place after the pandemic.
The Arena Toruń will also stage the 2026 World Athletics Indoor Championships.
A bumper medal haul in Tokyo 2020
Polish athletics was arguably at the height of its powers in 2021. At the postponed Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, nine of Poland’s 14 medals across the entire programme were won in athletics, including all four of their gold medals.
Anita Wlodarczyk won her third successive Olympic title in the women’s hammer, providing one-half of a Polish double in the event with Wojciech Nowicki winning the men’s hammer. The Poles also took a thrilling victory in the inaugural mixed 4x00m relay - the first athletics final to be held in Tokyo 2020 - and Dawid Tomala became the last ever winner of the Olympic 50km race walk which was held in Sapporo.
European Athletics President Dobromir Karamarinov acknowledged the 100th anniversary of the Polish Athletics Championships and recognised many of the great Polish athletes who have enriched the sport over the last century.
“It is an anniversary to celebrate not least because the first national championships in 1920 and those very early editions served as a catalyst for Poland’s subsequent debut at the Olympic Games in 1924 and the country’s later success at the World Athletics Championships and European Athletics Championships.
“The role of honour of Polish national champions has all the great names from this country that loves athletics: from Hanna Konopacka - Poland’s first Olympic champion in any sport - who won the discus back in 1928 four years after her first national titles, to 21st century talents like hammer world record-holder Anita Wlodarczyk and the recently crowned European 400m gold medallist Natalia Kaczmarek.
“The list of Polish national champions who have gone on to subsequent global or continental success is far too long to list in its entirety, but I would just like to mention famous names like Elzbieta Krzesinska, Zdzislaw Krzyszkowiak Janusz Kusocinski, Tomasz Majewski, Bronislaw Malinowski, Kamila Skolimowska, and Jozef Szmidt.
“All of these people took multiple national titles, but this is just a very small sample of Polish champions who went on to become Olympic gold medal winners and athletics icons. This fact alone shows what a great showcase for our sport this championship is. And, of course, there is Irena Szewinska.
“She truly deserves the honour of being thought of as a legend of our sport for all her achievements on and off the track but, domestically, she was a Polish national champion on no less than 20 occasions,” said Karamarinov.
Steven Mills for European Athletics