2024-11-04 19:47 update: 2024-11-05, 14:47
Photo: PAP/EPA/FAZRY ISMAIL
Fourteen-year-old Emma Ridolfini and twelve-year-old Tomasz Budzinski have become Poland's surfing champions at this year's competition in Wladyslawowo on the Polish Baltic coast.
The next places on the podium were taken by Julia Szulikowska, last year's gold medalists Karolina Marczak and Jakub Kuzia, and Bartosz Kulczynski.
Over 30 Polish surfers from all over the world appeared on the beach in the Wladyslawowo on November 3 to take part in the third official Polish Surfing Championships.
The championships are organised by the Polish Surfing Association (PZS) in line with the standards and guidelines of the International Surfing Association (ISA), the European Surfing Federation and certified ISA/PZS judges.
The competition was not held until November as organisers awaited suitable weather conditions, specifically the presence of high waves.
Both winners of this year's championships, who also turned out to be the best in the junior competition, live abroad - Ridolfini (her mother is Polish) in Rome, Budzinski on Fuerteventura, one of the Canary Islands. The runners-up, Marczak and Kuzia, flew in from the Philippines and Portugal, respectively.
The competition lasted all day Saturday as the weather and wave conditions were excellent, with air temperature of 8 degrees Celsius, the water temperature of 12 degrees Celsius, and the waves up to 2.8 metres high.
Surfing as an Olympic discipline that debuted at the 2021 games in Tokyo. This year, the surfers competed in Tahiti, in French Polynesia. PZS officially belongs to the Olympic family. This year, it sent a Polish team to the World Championships, where the Poles were 7 positions short of qualifying for the Games. Together with the head coach of the National Teams - Llewellyn Whittaker from South Africa - PZS places its greatest hopes on the Juniors, who took 14th place in the European Junior Championships in July.
The PZS was established on the initiative of the pioneers and enthusiasts of surfing in Poland and has been an active member of the ISA for many years. It associates sports clubs, competitors and organisations active in the development of all types of surfing in Poland: Surf, Longboard, Stand Up Paddleboard (SUP), and Bodysurf. (PAP)
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