Marcelina Palov and Dimitrij Janczylik from the University of Gdańsk won gold medals at the Polish Academic Judo Championships, held in Piła. Moreover, in the final classification of universities, the University of Gdańsk took 3rd place.

Report by Kinga Trzebiatowska/AZS UG

On the second and third of April, eight representatives of UG appeared in Piła. The line-up included: Felicja Gajdowska, Kacper Gros, Dmitrij Janczylik, Kevin Junker, Marcelina Palow, Jakub Potulski, Natasza Szatkiewicz and Jakub Wilk. Our eight were prepared for the fights under the watchful eye of coach Marek Bobkiewicz.

The competitors were divided into weight categories: -60kg, -66kg, -73kg, -81kg, -90kg, -100kg, +100kg. At least a dozen people participated in each of them. The UG's representatives went to the AMPs with different goals.

- 'As far as individual goals are concerned, I personally wanted to gain experience and fight in as many fights as possible. I have to admit that I am a little unsatisfied,' - admits Natalia Szatkiewicz, the UG's representative. - 'We fell short of individual medals in a few categories, but the most important thing is that in the end, we gained enough points for the podium in the general classification,' - she adds.

Judo requires mastery of movement and control over one's own body, which our students did not lack. The right skills enabled some to take high places in the final summary of the championships. In 5th place in the men's classification, but also in 1st place in the men's university type classification was Dmitry Janczylik, who faced his opponents in the -90kg weight category. In 5th place among the gathered female students, but also in 1st place in the women's individual classification, in the type of universities, was Marcelina Palov, fighting in the weight category -70kg.

In the official summary, the University of Gdańsk took 17th place out of 28 universities, whose representatives came to Piła. Among the universities, we were in 3rd place, just behind Warsaw University and University of Łódź.

- 'I think that our main goal was to do well as a group, as a university, and we certainly succeeded in that,' - adds Natalia Szatkiewicz.

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