A World Athletics Championship without a medal for Poles? That's unfortunately a real possibility.
After the aforementioned event in the Eternal City, a small breakthrough came in 1991... in Tokyo, where Wanda Panfil won the gold medal in the marathon. Later, in the world championships, held every two years (instead of every four), the Polish national team won at least one medal continuously until the previous edition, held in 2023 in Budapest.
Natalia Kaczmarek (now Bukowiecka, 400m) and Wojciech Nowicki (hammer) finished that event with silver. Kaczmarek is currently absent from the national team (he ended his season prematurely due to injury), while the Polish record holder (48.90) has recently achieved significantly slower times than in her excellent 2023 and stellar 2024, which resulted in Olympic bronze.
As PZLA President Sebastian Chmara often emphasizes, track and field is a highly measurable sport. And judging by this year's results, a sobering forecast suggests that they will only truly compete for podium places in a few events.
Of course, we can console ourselves with the Tokyo weather, which was exceptionally kind to our athletes. This was the case at the 1964 Olympics, when representatives of the queen of sports won a whopping eight medals, including two gold—Józef Szmidt (triple jump) and the women's 4x100m relay team (Teresa Ciepły, Halina Górecka, Irena Kirszenstein, Ewa Kłobukowska).
Four years ago, the Polish Athletics Association (PZLA) team also broke even. And that was at the new Olympic stadium, which could accommodate 68,000 spectators during the track and field competition (the old one was demolished in 2015), though it was empty at the time, during the pandemic. Of the nine medals, four were in the most precious metal (4–2–3).
Since then, however, the team has undergone significant changes due to the "aging" of its core, as painfully demonstrated by the sharp decline in medals won in three consecutive global events (four at the 2022 World Championships in Eugene, two at the 2023 World Championships in Budapest, and one at the 2024 Olympics in Paris). And perhaps even more painfully, the drop in points awarded for places 1-8 in the points standings at those events. While we collected 74 points in Tokyo (13 top eights), later in Eugene, Budapest, and Paris, we had 49 (9), 31 (8), and just 20 (6) respectively... And Tokyo might not be any better than last year in Paris.
Before the World Championships, we can count only four disciplines in which the results achieved by Poles in 2025 would potentially place them in places 1-8 in the Tokyo competition. Looking a bit more optimistically, our representatives could fit in the top ten in eight specialties.
Who are we talking about? The world's fastest time of the 2025 season—which, however, isn't a foregone conclusion—is held by the Polish mixed 4x400m relay team (3:09.43). Sixth on the entry list is the women's 4x400m relay (3:24.56), followed by high jumper Maria Żodzik (1.98 m) and hammer thrower Paweł Fajdek (79.07 m).
Ninth – Natalia Bukowiecka in the 400 m (49.72) and javelin thrower Cyprian Mrzygłód (85.92 m), and tenth – Anita Włodarczyk in the hammer throw (74.70 m) and shot putter Konrad Bukowiecki (21.33 m).
Will they go for a mixed team?So, who from the 62-person squad appointed by the Polish Athletics Association (PZLA) should we definitely keep an eye on in the first two days of the event? The Polish mixed 4x400m team will be competing on Saturday, having won the gold medal in the new Olympic event four years ago. The Polish record of 3:09.87 was broken less than three months ago at the European Athletics Championships in Madrid (3:09.43) by Maksymilian Szwed, Justyna Święty-Ersetic, Daniel Sołtysiak, and Natalia Bukowiecka.
If this result is repeated in the Tokyo final, we could be in with a medal. And there's no doubt that if we're going to fight for it, the mixed relay team—unlike at the 2023 World Championships and the 2024 Olympics (where they made the right decision by focusing on individual races)—must be supported by Bukowiecka. Natalia's coach and our mixed relay team (she's responsible for it together with Aleksander Matusiński), Marek Rożej, and the athlete herself, were supposed to make the decision shortly before the competition...
The dilemma, of course, is that the very next day after the qualifying rounds and final of the MIX relay, i.e. on Sunday, the Polish record holder will face the first round of the 400 m. And if she supported the mixed team fully, i.e. in two races on Saturday, it would certainly take away a lot of her strength needed for the expected Tuesday semi-final or Thursday final...
The championships will begin Saturday morning, Japanese time (Friday night in Poland, a seven-hour difference) with the women's and men's 35-kilometer walk. Katarzyna Zdziebło won silver in this distance three years ago at the World Championships in Eugene, as did the 20-kilometer walk. Today, it seems the rivals have much greater potential. But who knows, maybe our doctor or Maher Ben Hlima will be inspired by the sensation from four years ago, when Dawid Tomala took Olympic gold in the 50-kilometer race in Sapporo?
Will Konrad look at Natalia?Other interesting competitions from our point of view on Saturday and Sunday are certainly the eliminations, semi-finals and final of the women's 100 m sprint, in which Poland will be represented by the sixth athlete of the 2023 World Championships — Ewa Swoboda.
Klaudia Kazimierska and Weronika Lizakowska will first try to reach the semi-finals of the 1500 m race, as will Filip Rak, bronze medalist of this year's U-23 European Athletics Championships.
The hammer throw qualifications are scheduled for Sunday, with the participation of Anita Włodarczyk, who is returning to Tokyo four years after her third Olympic triumph (the final on Monday), as well as the first round of the 100m hurdles, in which we will see Pia Skrzyszowska, the 2022 European senior champion.
Shot putter Konrad Bukowiecki could have a busy Saturday. First, he'll be competing in the qualifying round, and then—we hope so—the finals in the evening. And let's hope that right after finishing, Konrad's eyes are on the track, where his wife, likely running the last shift, might be taking advantage of what might be Poland's biggest chance for a medal at the Tokyo competition...
Tokyo number:Polish athletes won nine medals (4-2-3) at the Tokyo Olympics four years ago. Wojciech Nowicki (hammer, gold), Dawid Tomala (50km walk, gold), Malwina Kopron (hammer, bronze), and Patryk Dobek (800m, bronze) will not be competing at the World Championships. Several members of the mixed (gold) and women's (silver) 4x400m relay teams will also be missing, with the exception of Natalia Bukowiecka, Justyna Święty-Ersetic, and Kajetan Duszyński. Anita Włodarczyk (hammer, gold), Maria Andrejczyk (javelin, silver), and Paweł Fajdek (hammer, bronze) are also preparing to compete.
World Cup programSATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 13
[1.00] 35 km M walk — [FINAL] ( Maher Ben Hlima )
[1.00] 35 km walk K — [FINAL] ( Katarzyna Zdziebło , Agnieszka Ellward )
[2.00] Disc K - Qualifications ( Daria Zabawska )
[3.55] bullet M — qualifications ( Konrad Bukowiecki )
[4.23] 100 m M — preliminaries
[4.55] 4x400 m mixed — qualifying round ( Poland )
[11.05] 3000 m obstacle course M — qualifying
[11.30] long jump K — qualifications ( Nikola Horowska , Anna Matuszewicz )
[11.55] 100 m K — qualifying round ( Ewa Swoboda )
[12.05] M pole vault - qualifications ( Piotr Lisek )
[12.50] 1500 m K — qualifying round ( Klaudia Kazimierska , Weronika Lizakowska )
[13.35] 100 m M — qualifying
[14.10] ball M — [FINAL] (possibly Bukowiecki )
[14.30] 10,000 m K — [FINAL]
[15.20] 4x400 m MIX — [FINAL] (possibly Poland )
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 14
[1.00] marathon K — [FINAL] ( Aleksandra Brzezińska , Izabela Paszkiewicz )
[2.00] K hammer — qualifications ( Anita Włodarczyk , Katarzyna Furmanek , Ewa Różańska )
[2.35] 1500 m M — qualifying ( Filip Rak )
[4.28] 100 m hurdles W — qualifying round ( Pia Skrzyszowska , Alicja Sielska )
[11.35] 400 m M — qualifying ( Maksymilian Szwed )
[11.40] M upwards — qualifications ( Mateusz Kołodziejski )
[12.10] disc K — [FINAL] (or Zabawska )
[12.25] 400 m W — qualifying round ( Natalia Bukowiecka , Justyna Święty-Ersetic )
[13.20] 100 m W — semi-finals (possibly Swoboda )
[13.40] long jump K — [FINAL] (possibly Horowska , Matuszewicz )
[13:43] 100m M — Semi-finals
[14.05] 1500 m K — semi-finals (possibly Kazimierska , Lizakowska )
[14.30] 10,000 m M — [FINAL]
[15.13] 100 m W — [FINAL] (possibly Swoboda )
[15.20] 100m M — [FINAL]
przegladsportowy
