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Bukowiecki making all the right moves

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Poland’s teenage shot putter Konrad Bukowiecki comes under the spotlight with nine days to go until the European Athletics Championships.

When Konrad Bukowiecki won gold at the European Athletics Junior Championships in Eskilstuna last summer, he said, ominously: 'I still have another year left at this level.'

But now it is not just the teenagers who have to be concerned about his shot-putting prowess.

The rise of the outstanding Polish 19-year-old has reached the stage this summer where he is among the favourites for gold at the European Athletics Championships which start in Amsterdam on 6 July.

Bukowiecki sits proudly second on the European Athletics' rankings with 21.14m, his brilliant world junior record from Oslo earlier this month being just another landmark moment.

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Coached by his father Ireneusz, a former decathlete, Konrad is making waves at senior level like no other youngster in any event.

He has consistently beaten his fellow Pole, the Olympic champion Tomasz Majewski, this summer and even Germany's David Storl, who will be chasing a third successive European title in Amsterdam, is a place behind him on the rankings with 21.01m.

The lists are led by another Polish shot putter, Michal Haratyk, with 21.23m from May, but Bukowiecki is the man very much in form.

And if confirmation was needed of that it came this weekend as he triumphed at the national championships in Bydgoszcz, beating both Haratyk and Majewski.

Bukowiecki won with 20.80m from the third round – he cleared 20m three times, also recording 20.18m and 20.56m – as Haratyk was second (20.61m) and Majewski third (20.43).

 

He is also planning to compete at the IAAF World Junior Championships, where is the defending champion, with the event taking place in Bydgoszcz itself, nine days after Amsterdam.

Bukowiecki said of this win: “The distance is not very long but it is about the medals in national championships. I am very happy.

'Of course I am going to Amsterdam. I am second ranked in the European senior rankings and I hope for a medal.

'In my preparation there are not two peaks but three: Amsterdam, Rio and also Bydgoszcz. I cannot wait to compete.'

Last October he was crowned European Athletics' Male Rising Star of 2015, a worthy honour from a year topped by his European junior glory that included breaking the European junior record with a senior implement as he reached 20.46m on two occasions at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Prague.

He ended the outdoor season by breaking the world junior record with the heavier device with 20.78m, and by the time he stretched that even further at the Bislett Games, he had already smashed Storl's 6kg European mark of 22.73m from 2009 with 22.91m and 22.94m in Bojanowo.

It is all about impact and consistency and with the European Athletics Championships in Amsterdam just days away, Bukowiecki has both of those elements in abundance.

His presence alone will make the most experienced of stars look up and take notice.



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