For the first time till March of 2010, a Polish
team will be starting in a World Cup team event
when this year's winter season kicks off in Kuusamo
in about five weeks time. The Polish focus is clearly
set on the World Cup this winter, as head coach
Jan Klimko said on skipol.pl.
"We give priority to the World Cup this year
and the Universiade in Trentino will have the second
most important position. We plan to send three athletes
there but we also don't want to miss out on the
World Cup in Ramsau and are planning to send two
athletes there. The World Cup is important to reach
the qualifying criteria for the Olympics."
After a lot of injuries in the last couple of months,
most of Klimko's athletes are healthy now. Only
Adam Cieslar who injured his knee earlier this year
still does not have permission to start with the
jumping training but Klimko expects him to make
his first jumps when the team is back on snow.
At the moment, Klimko's team is preparing in Ramsau
for a total of 10 days, before the first jumps on
snow will be made in Rovaniemi where the hill is
expected to be ready around the 9th of November.
After that, the team will go directly to the World
Cup Opening in Kuusamo.
Klimko is optimistic when it comes to his athletes'
prospects: "I think the summer season showed
us that we can fight. The boys had good results
in jumping and also in roller-skiing. Szczepan Kupczak
and Pawel Slowiok showed that they are able to reach
a Top 30 result. It brought a lot of optimism to
the staff. Of course, the winter is a different
story. Kuusamo is known for the hardest and most
difficult competitions of the season. It will not
be easy."