Some of the Polish athletes who will perform at the upcoming Olympics have just arrived in Japan. Among them are our runners who will perform, among others in the 4×400 meter relay. Unfortunately, disturbing news is coming from the Polish athlete camp. Just before the departure to Asia, the leader of the relay Justyna Święty-Ersetic suffered an injury, who is also expected to compete in the individual 400 meters race. The injury of the nearly 29-year-old athlete may significantly reduce the chances of Polish women to win the much-desired Olympic medal in Tokyo.
– It is a very difficult question, what are my hopes before the Olympics about Justyna’s starts? Unfortunately, I don’t know exactly what her health will allow her to do in Tokyo. She recently sustained a minor muscle overload injury in training, and they slowed down. In the coming days we will see how much she has lost at her disposal. She should deal with this injury before the starts, but we’ll find out when she gets into full training. In fact, Justyna has to train a little more, because unfortunately she missed a bit – Aleksander Matusiński is worried.
The coach has not yet selected the composition in which the Polish relay race will run in Tokyo, first in the qualifying round, and then in the possible final. At the moment, however, he has one certainty.
– I never know, two weeks before the start, who will take part in the competition, but I can assume that the line-up will certainly include its current leader, the Polish champion Natalia Kaczmarek. She is the best runner of all the girls. As for the rest, we’ll see if the girls will still run tests, because there are also individual runs and mixes. We still have some time and we will have feedback from which we will draw conclusions soon. I would like all of them to be good enough, even the reserve ones, so that I could name at least two players in the qualifying rounds. I would like to save two more fresh ones for the final. I think I will mention one for sure, or two? If they are in good dispositions, then also – adds the 42-year-old coach.
Aleksander Matusiński has no doubts that in the 4×400 relay race the most dangerous rivals of Polish women will be Americans and Jamaica.
“I always say they are out of reach and we have to win with the rest of the world.” For several years, however, we have managed to win with Jamaica. Great Britain, which has a better average than ours, will certainly be a threat. Currently, according to the statistics and times of individual runs, we are in fourth place. Our girls, however, are famous for the fact that they always improve at target events, they are very brave. Their advantage is also the experience and familiarity with championship events. For some of them it is already the third Olympics.
– In the coming days we will pay attention to the technique and smoothness of relay changes. We will be doing some polishing, it will be the so-called skimming, because there is no time for some very hard training. We want to get used to both the climatic conditions and the new time conditions in Japan – concluded Aleksander Matusiński.
Recall that the Polish women’s 4×400 meters relay is the current 2019 world runner-up in Doha. In 2017 in London, Polish women also won bronze in the world championships. In 2018, they became European champions in Berlin. During the same competition, Justyna Święty-Ersetic also won the gold medal in the individual 400 meters race.
