Polish Senior Championships: Konrad Czerniak Shines

By David Rieder, Swimming World high school intern

GLIWICE, Poland, June 6. KONRAD Czerniak dominated the Polish Senior Championships, earning five victories. Additionally, Catherine Wolf, Donata Kilijañska, and Slawomir Wolniak all posted three victories over the course of the meet.

Konrad Czerniak won the 50 free (21.98), 100 free (48.98), 200 free (1:50.01), 50 fly (24.36), and 100 fly (52.03). His 50 free time moved him to fourth in the world, while he tied for tenth in the world in the 100 free with the Netherlands' Sebastiaan Verschuren, and he placed fifth in the world in the 100 fly.

Meanwhile, Slawomir Wolniak swept the breaststroke events with times of 28.50, 1:02.45, and 2:13.77, in the 50, 100, and 200 breast, respectively. Radoslaw Kawecki almost matched his feat, winning the 100 and 200 back with respective times of 56.20 and 1:58.82, the later of which ranks him 16th in the world, but he ended up fourth in the 50 back. Marcin Unold ended up winning the 50 back in 26.18.

Two recent world champions each won two victories at the meet. Przemysław Stancyzk, the 2007 world champion in the 800 free, took both that event and the 1500 free with times of 7:59.78 and 15:22.71, respectively. Stancyzk moved to 15th in the world in the 800. Meanwhile, Pawel Korzeniowski, the 2005 world champion in the 200 fly, took both event in 1:55.73, moving him to fourth in the world. He also clocked fast times to win the 200 IM in 2:02.16 and take second in the 100 fly in 53.11.

Meceij Hreniak beat Stancyzk to win the 400 free, 3:53.12 to 3:51.61, while Matthew Metczak won the 400 IM, clocking 4:25.94.

On the women's side, Catherine Wolf and Donata Kilijañska took three victories each. Wolf won the 50 free (25.53), 100 free (55.44), and 200 free (2:00.72). Kilijañska, meanwhile, claimed the top spot in the 400 free (4:19.35), 800 free (8:51.74), and 1500 free (16:48.12). Paulina Zachoszcz nearly matched Wolf and Kilijañska as a triple winner, claiming the 50 breast (32.38) and 200 breast (2:30.13), but Kinga Cichowska beat her in the 100 breast, 1:11.03 to 1:11.47.

In addition to Zachoszcz, both Mirela Olczak and Karolina Szczepaniak took two titles each. Olczak won the 100 and 200 fly with respective times of 1:00.56 and 2:11.53, while Szczepaniak swept the IMs, clocking times of 2:17.21 in the 200 and 4:50.41 in the 400.

Three different women claimed backstroke victories. Alexander Urbańczyk won the 50 back in 28.97, while Claudia Naziêb took the 100 back in 1:02.44. Alice Coward won the 200 back in 2:13.35. Agata Bushell posted a 27.30 for victory in the 50 fly.

Swimming World high school intern David "The Swim Geek" Rieder is a high school swimmer in Charleston, S.C. He swims for the Southern Marlins Racing Team and often negative splits his races. He can be found on the web at swimdr549.blogspot.com and twitter.com/david2swim.

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

Welcome to our community. We invite you to join our discussion. Our community guidelines are simple: be respectful and constructive, keep on topic, and support your fellow commenters. Commenting signifies that you agree to our Terms of Use

0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x