The Polish European Championships medalists from Birmingham are awaiting their appearance in front of a home crowd. The heroes of our team will compete in the Diamond League on August 23rd. – The Silesia Kamila Skolimowska Memorial is the perfect opportunity to thank them for their efforts – Piotr Małachowski stated.
A full week of competition, eight medals and 100 points in the placing table. Even if the Polish team won no golds in Birmingham, we nonetheless saw a strong showing by our athletes. Nearly all of them will make an appearance at the Diamond League in the Superauto.pl Silesian Stadium on August 23rd.
– Ewa Swoboda, Natalia Bukowiecka, Maria Żodzik, Klaudia Kazimierska, Pia Skrzyszowska and Jakub Szymański will come to Silesia straight from England. Their showings in Alexander Stadium were terrific and it looks like they peaked at the right time. They will now benefit from that peak form in subsequent meetings. It is great that the „Kama” comes along right after the main event of the season – commented Marek Plawgo, the meeting’s communications director.
Bukowiecka will do her best to take revenge on the 400 metres European champion Henriette Jaeger. Especially since, had it not been for the cold and rainy weather in England, she could have aimed at the national record. Kazimierska, who is yet to set a national record at 1500 metres, openly asked the organisers for the pace to be set at 3:54. The Polish record stands at 3:57.31! In Birmingham, Jakub Szymański came close to the national record at 110 metre hurdles. He did it twice, running 13.26 in both the semis and the final – a mere one one-hundredth off the fastest Polish performance ever.
– Then there are our queens of the track: Pia and Ewa. For years both been bearing the weight of expectations that they could improve on long-aged records. They have been chasing the marks, but the conditions in England were not too good, the races and probably the track itself were generally slow. The surface in Silesia is perfect. The weather is expected to be favourable as well, which, along with their form, whets our appetites. – said Piotr Małachowski, sports director of the meeting.
In Birmingham, Swoboda proved she is a part of the elite of European sprinting. She lost only to the great Amy Hunt with 11.02, an excellent time under the conditions. The Briton was faster by a mere 0.02! Importantly, at the Memorial she will line up alongside exceptional runners: Melissa Jefferson-Wooden, Julien Alfred, Sha’ Carri Richardson and Shericka Jackson. Skrzyszowska came even closer to taking gold in England. The story of her finishing in an identical time with Nadine Visser and the final verdict stating she lost to the Dutchwoman by 1.1 cm will go down in the history of Polish sports.
Żodzik has a story of her own, too.
– The day before the European Championships qualifying round I wept for an hour and kept saying my neck hurt. And that I did not want to compete – she confessed in front of TVP Sport’s cameras.
That happened after she suffered an injury in a dangerous-looking fall at the London Diamond League. She hardly trained in the meantime, but still showed terrific form in Birmingham. After a shaky start at 1.83, she kept clearing subsequent heights on first attempt. The key height turned out to be 1.95, which gave her the silver. Only Yaroslava Mahuchikh was able to go higher, taking her third consecutive European gold. On Sunday, the duel between the two will fire up the crowd once again, this time at the Diamond League in Poland.
In Birmingham, the Poles did not just take medals in individual events. The women’s 4×100 metre relay team took bronze, while Dominik Kopeć finished in an excellent fifth place in the 100 metres. There is a good reason to mention those. Both he and Swoboda will be running individually on August 23rd, but will also attempt to qualify the national team in the mixed 4x100m – a new event on the program – for the 2027 World Championships.
– I like the fact it is something new. I like it that on the day, in my favourite stadium, I will get to race for you twice. I want to be strong in both events and I hope we will fulfil our goal as a group. But to do that, we need your voices. There used to be an advertising slogan: everyone go the Silesian Stadium. I am bringing it back. At the Diamond League we would also like to thank you for your support during the European Championships! – Swoboda stated.
The Silesian voivodeship assembly chairman Wojciech Saługa invites everyone to the Silesia Kamila Skolimowska Memorial. Tickets to the 2026 Diamond League in Poland are available for purchase on the MemorialKamili.pl website.