Paweł Wiesiołek returned to the throne. His great rival experienced a tragedy

The men's heptathlon opened this year's Polish Indoor Championships, which were traditionally organized in Toruń. Paweł Wiesiołek entered the competition, but it was not obvious whether he would win the gold medal. A year earlier he was also considered the favorite, but Rafał Horbowicz triumphed. This time, however, the last one mentioned was extremely unlucky, which benefited his most serious opponent.

HMP. Rafał Horbowicz's drama in the heptathlon

The competition started with a 60-meter run, which was divided into two rounds. The best result in the first one was Hubert Trościanka with a time of 7.04 seconds. Wiesiołek was second with a result of 7.08. In this competition, Horbowicz did poorly because he was also overtaken by Jacek Chochorowski, Paweł Basałyga, Oliwier Przybylski, Oliwier Tarasiewicz and Artur Brzeziński.

Then the multi-athletes moved on to another competition – the long jump. Here the favorite performed best, recording a distance of 7.30. He overtook the second-placed Basałyga by 8 centimeters. Horbowicz, on the other hand, made up for part of the point loss in the shot put, which he threw at 15.49 meters – almost one and a half meters further than the main candidate for gold. The defending champion took second place in the high jump, in which he jumped to 1.96 meters. Wiesiołek achieved 2.02.

The competitors returned to the competition before noon. On Sunday, they started in the 60-meter hurdles and it was a key competition for the further fate of the heptathlon. Horbowicz did not finish it, as he knocked over three hurdles and did not even reach the finish line. Although Wiesiołek achieved only the 6th fastest time among the entire group (8.45 seconds), it was not a problem for him, considering the fact that the defending champion resigned from participating in the remaining competitions. There was no way he would be able to catch up with the leaders after such a mishap.

Paweł Wiesiołek completed the formalities

That's why the gold medal for Wiesiołek became obvious when the competitors competed in the pole vault. In this discipline, the 33-year-old feels like a fish out of water and he confirmed it once again. He started with a level of 4.60, when only 3 out of 9 players remained in the game. Ultimately, he overcame the height of 4.90 and took a clear lead.

The formality was to be completed in the 1000 meters race. Before this start, the favorite had an advantage of over 500 points over the second placed Jacek Chochorowski and Artur Brzeziński. Interestingly, these two were separated by only two points, and not far behind them was Hubert Trościanka – the fastest in the sprint. Ultimately, there were no surprises – Paweł Wiesiołek reached the finish line fourth with a time of 2:49.14, but he still won the gold medal of the Polish Indoor Heptathlon Championships. The 33-year-old led for most of the race, but then he was overtaken by three opponents – Trościanka (he won the competition), Brzeziński and Miśków.