Poland takes relay bronze at European Athletics Championships in Birmingham, men finish fifth

Women's relay: near-record heats, bronze in final

The Polish women's 4x100m relay team of Kryscina Cimanouska, Wiktoria Gajosz, Magdalena Stefanowicz and Ewa Swoboda delivered the performance of the heats, running 42.63s to finish second in their series. The time was just 0.02s short of the national record, set four years ago in the European Championship final with a lineup that included Anna Kiełbasińska and Pia Skrzyszowska. Only the Swiss team was faster in the heat, by 0.25s. The 42.63s marked the second-best time in Polish athletics history. Germany, among the pre-competition favorites for the women's relay, made a mistake in the heats and failed to advance.

For the evening final, Skrzyszowska, the continental hurdles champion who already had silver at these championships, replaced Gajosz on the second leg. Cimanuska opened the race chasing Britain's Dina Asher-Smith, who was aiming to equal Irena Szewińska's medal tally. Swoboda received the baton in second place but was overtaken on the anchor leg by Switzerland's Salome Kora, who also finished seventh in two-woman bobsleigh at this year's Olympics in Italy. Poland's final time of 43.15s was considerably slower than their 42.63s in the heats, but the margin to silver was just 0.03s.

Men's relay: fifth after Italian disqualification

The Polish men's 4x100m team of Jakub Lempach, Patryk Krupa, Łukasz Żak and Dominik Kopeć ran 39.17s in the heats, finishing fourth in their series. They advanced to the final as "lucky losers" in eighth position, edging out Switzerland by just 0.01s, as the Swiss ran 39.18s in the second heat. Kopeć's anchor leg was credited as decisive in securing qualification.

In the final, Sebastian Libura replaced Krupa in the lineup. The team ran 39.18s, one hundredth slower than in the heats, initially placing sixth. Italy's subsequent disqualification moved Poland up to fifth. Great Britain won gold in 38.45s, Germany took silver in 38.64s, and Belgium completed the podium in 38.70s.

Athlete reactions

Swoboda, who already had a silver medal from the 100m at these championships, urged calm after the strong heat performance, noting that previous relay finals had not always lived up to expectations.

Let's leave what we did now. There were already many situations like this where we ran close to the Polish record, and then the final came and you know what happened. I believe in the girls, I believe in this lineup.

Stefanowicz highlighted the team's belief in their lineup and praised Gajosz, who was running in the relay for the first time.

We believed very strongly in this lineup and that we could run really well, because on paper we were strong and we proved it, we're in the final. We hope to repeat the run and it will be very good.

Kopeć, after the men's final, called fifth place in Europe a significant achievement despite the imperfect baton exchanges.

Fifth place in Europe is a big achievement. Obviously, you'd want to run faster. The exchanges in the final didn't work out, it's hard to say much more.

Swoboda also noted the atmosphere at the stadium, saying it felt more like a major competition than the individual 100m events earlier in the programme, and that the team was ready for a full stadium in the evening session.