2022 Arena Grand Prix Polish Cup
- March 19-20, 2022
- Oswiecim, Poland
- LCM (50m)
- Results
A pair of Polish swimmers booked their ticket to the 2022 World Championships on the weekend at the Arena Grand Prix Polish Cup in Oswiecim, as veteran Konrad Czerniak earned a berth for his seventh straight Worlds appearance and newcomer Laura Bernat qualified for her first.
Poland’s status for the 2022 World Championships was previously up in the air, with the national swimming federation threatening to boycott the competition if Russian and Belarusian athletes were in attendance.
That all changed on Wednesday, as FINA officially announced that Russia and Belarus would not be permitted to compete at the World Championships.
Czerniak, a 32-year-old who made his World Championship debut back in 2009, booked his ticket to Budapest on the weekend in the men’s 50 butterfly, clocking a time of 23.45 to get under the FINA ‘A’ standard of 23.63.
Czerniak holds the Polish Record in the event with a time of 23.07, set in the 2015 World Championship semi-finals where he would go on to tie with Hungarian legend Laszlo Cseh for the bronze medal.
Taking second behind Czerniak in Oswiecim was Pawel Uryniuk, who narrowly missed the Worlds automatic qualifying standard in 23.67. That swim marked a new best for Uryniuk, who finished fifth in the event at last summer’s European Junior Championships.
Also a three-time Polish Olympian, Czerniak also came within a tenth of the Worlds standard in the 50 free, clocking 22.27 to fall just shy of the 22.18 ‘A’ cut. He also put up a time of 50.39 in the 100 free, which gets under the FINA ‘B’ standard (50.48).
Joining Czerniak in earning Worlds qualification was Bernat, who registered a time of 2:10.13 in the women’s 200 backstroke is easily get under the ‘A’ cut of 2:11.08.
Bernat, who owns a PB of 2:09.81 from March 2021, was a semi-finalist in this event at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, clocking 2:10.37 in the prelims (13th) before placing 14th overall in the semis with a time of 2:12.86.
Another noteworthy performer at the competition was 17-year-old Krzysztof Chmielewski, an Olympic finalist last summer in the men’s 200 fly, who clocked 1:57.96 in the event. While that time falls shy of the Worlds ‘A’ cut (1:56.71), Chmielewski has been as fast as 1:55.29 and will have several more opportunities to earn automatic qualification for Budapest.
Chmielewski also swam a best time of 7:59.21 in the 800 free, marking his first time under the 8:00-barrier. It also puts him 10 seconds under the FINA ‘B’ standard.
Other swimmers that narrowly missed automatic Worlds qualification were Paulina Peda and Alicja Tchorz.
Peda, a 24-year-old who was a finalist in the women’s 100 backstroke at the 2021 European SC Championships, put up a time of 1:00.87 in that event to fall just shy of the 1:00.59 ‘A’ standard. The swim did however qualify her for the 2022 World University Games.
Tchorz (28.67) and Peda (28.76) went 1-2 in the women’s 50 back, both just off the 28.22 ‘A’ cut, and Tchorz was also within three-tenths of the 25.04 standard in the 50 free (25.30).
The last Arena Grand Prix Polish Cup meet of the 2021-22 season will take place April 9-10 in Lublin.
With the 2022 World Championships getting moved from May in Fukuoka to late June in Budapest, FINA extended the qualifying period by 15 days, meaning the qualification deadline is now May 15 rather than May 1.
