Natalia Bukowiecka races at the Irena Szewińska Memorial (© Irena Szewińska Memorial)
Several medallists from the World Indoor Championships in Kujawy Pomorze will return to Poland for the Irena Szewińska Memorial – this season’s fourth World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting – in Bydgoszcz on Friday (29).
Jakub Szymański races on home soil two months on from winning the world indoor 60m hurdles title in front of passionate local fans at the Kujawsko-Pomorska Arena. Now competing at the Zdzisław Krzyszkowiak Stadium, he will be joined by fellow world indoor medallists including Natalia Bukowiecka, Erick Portillo, Pia Skrzyszowska and Alexander Doom.
Szymański became Poland’s first ever world indoor hurdles champion when he got gold in Kujawy Pomorze and is unbeaten in 15 races – indoors and outdoors, including heats and semifinals – so far this year. But in the 110m hurdles he faces another athlete looking to maintain a win streak – Jamal Britt, who won the opening two Wanda Diamond League meetings in Shanghai and Xiamen and who has shown impressive consistency by matching his PB of 13.07, set in 2024, four times already this season.
Also in the field, contesting heats before the final, are Polish champion Damian Czykier who finished fourth at the 2022 World Championships, Spain’s 2022 world bronze medallist Asier Martínez, and Michael Obasuyi and Kendry Menéndez, who have respectively clocked 13.22 and 13.26 this month.
A home star headlines the 100m hurdles, too, as two-time world indoor 60m hurdles medallist Skrzyszowska goes up against US Olympic finalist Alaysha Johnson and Hungary’s Luca Kozák. Skrzyszowska makes her hurdles season debut after racing as part of the Polish 4x100m quartet at the World Athletics Relays in Gaborone at the start of the month.
Bukowiecka added world indoor 400m silver to her individual World Championships silver and Olympic bronze medals and she also opens her season in her specialist event in Bydgoszcz after running the 4x400m at the World Relays.
She faces her relay teammate Justyna Święty-Ersetic and Great Britain’s Yemi Mary John, who was also in action in Gaborone and who ran a PB of 49.85 to win on her 400m season opener at the Continental Tour Gold meeting in Tokyo.
The men’s 400m features Doom, who anchored Belgium to 4x400m silver in Kujawy Pomorze after getting world indoor 400m and 4x400m gold at the previous edition in Glasgow. He takes on his teammate Dylan Borlee, Great Britain’s Olympic and world relay medallist Charlie Dobson, and Poland’s world indoor mixed 4x400m bronze medallist Marcin Karolewski.
Portillo will have fond memories of competing in Poland as he won Mexico's first ever global medal in a vertical jumps event by getting high jump silver in Kujawy Pomorze. He opens his outdoor season in Bydgoszcz where his rivals include his compatriot Edgar Rivera and Czechia’s world bronze medallist Jan Štefela.
Multiple global medallists Chris Nilsen of the USA and home favourite Piotr Lisek will clash with Menno Vloon and Simen Guttormsen in the pole vault, while the javelin contests star Poland’s Tokyo Olympic silver medallist Maria Andrejczyk, Croatia’s 2016 Olympic champion Sara Kolak and Finland’s Olympic finalist Oliver Helander.
Great Britain’s 2024 world indoor silver medallist Jemma Reekie races Poland’s European indoor champion Anna Wielgosz and France’s Olympic fifth-place finisher Rénelle Lamote in the 800m, while the 1500m features Poland’s world finalist Klaudia Kazimierska and Great Britain’s Melissa Courtney-Bryant.
In the men’s events, Great Britain’s 2023 world bronze medallist Ben Pattison is back in 800m action after finishing sixth in Shanghai, while Spain’s world indoor 800m bronze medallist Mohamed Attaoui steps up to contest the 1500m to make his season debut.
The 400m hurdles races feature Swedish record-holder Carl Bengtström and Türkiye’s İsmail Nezir, who won at the Tokyo Continental Tour Gold meeting in a PB of 48.25, plus Italy’s Alice Muraro and Poland’s Anna Gryc, who meet again after respectively finishing second and third on their hurdles season debuts in Savona.
