“This gold is even bigger!”

“This gold is even bigger!”

Two years ago Piotr Parfianowicz won gold on home ground at JWOC. Itself very creditable, but the 19-year-old has achieved a new peak in this year’s Long distance.

It was in the relay that he became a World Champion in 2011. “It was very special to do that on home ground. But I got the first place due to good team runners. I came in 17^th on the first leg”, he says. The time behind the leader was not so big, so Poland was still in the battle.

On the Long distance here he ran at gold standard all the way from start to finish of the 9.9 km course with 620 metres climb. “And I am from Warsaw where it is totally flat”, he smiles.

– But you managed to do well!

“I like the terrain. It’s close to Poland and I have been here for about five training camps”, he says.

The Polish border was just a few kilometres from the race, and for the Middle distance it is even closer.