The Polish summer nationals have been held at Wisla
on the past weekend and an undisputed victory went
to the title defender Pawel Slowiok. The silver
and bronze ranks went to Mateusz Wantulok and Szczepan
Kupczak.
A total of 16 starters tried their best in the competition
on Wisla’s HS 134 hill and the Jonidlo roller-skiing
tracks in sunny conditions but Poland’s team leader
Adam Cieslar had to pass on the competition due
to his recovery from a collarbone fracture sustained
earlier during a training camp.
In the jumping part, Mateusz Wantulok took the lead
with a good jump of 127 metres which gave him 120
points and a 29-second lead on second-ranking Szczepan
Kupczak who landed at 119,5 metres (112.8 p.). Winner
Slowiok had a not quite perfect jump and only ranked
third at the intermediate point with 117.5 metres
and 109.8 points.
In the roller-ski race, this meant 41 seconds of
time behind for Slowiok who had to overtake Kupczak
and Wantulok on the fairly flat course. In the end,
Slowiok managed the feat and won with a 4.6 second
margin on second-placed Mateusz Wantulok. Szczepan
Kupczak finished +1:01.3 behind the Slowiok. Places
four to six went to Jan Lowisz, Wojciech Marusarz
and Marcin Budz.
„I am very pleased with my race, especially as this
course is quite flat. After the jumping part, it
seemed quite hard to make up the time behind but
I went for it from the first lap on. I was able
to catch up with Mateusz on the second-but-last
lap and was able to overtake him“, a happy Slowiok
analysed his competition after the finish.
