We have a world vice-champion!
Jakub Siedlarski, a third-year student at the Silesian University of Technology, became a vice-champion of the world and a three-time bronze medallist of the World Ski Championships, which took place at the Wake Zone Stawiki water sports centre in Sosnowiec. This is one of the greatest successes in the history of this discipline in Poland.
The Poles won seven medals at this event. This is a huge success! In addition, with a large participation of the student of the Silesian University of Technology, who in a sports outfit with an eagle on his chest, holding a white and red flag, received medals on the podium four times in the most important rank of competitions in water skiing. In the photos and videos of this event he did not hide his emotions. It is his dream come true. Learn the story of Jakub Siedlarski, our vice-champion of the world.
Water skis instead of a football
23-year-old Jakub Siedlarski is a third-year energy student at the Faculty of Energy and Environmental Engineering of the Silesian University of Technology. He is also a member of the Student Science Club of Thermal Technology. It comes from Rogoźnik near Bobrowniki. He became passionate for water skiing at the age of 10, due to Joachim Świętek, a sports gymnastics coach.
“Instead of doing flips, somersaults and other stunts, I preferred football. The coach probably saw, however, that I would not be a great player, so he persuaded me to try my hand at water skiing – Jakub Siedlarski begins the story. - Initially I tried to reconcile football training with water skiing, but finally I chose the water. Finally, this sport became my life passion.
Water skiing is a sport that involves swimming on one or two water skis behind a lift or a motorboat. The competition is divided into four age categories – open to all, junior up to 15 and 19 and senior over thirty-five. There are three competitions: slalom, figure riding and jumping. Classifications are conducted in individual and team categories.
Jakub has already been training this sport for 14 years. During this time, he achieved many successes. At subsequent stages of his career, he reached for medals in the national arena (Polish champion in the open age category, Polish champion of juniors under 15 and 19) and international (he won several medals of the European Cup in open and junior categories). He was still missing the medal of the most important event. Until September of this year.
Spectacular and dangerous
Jakub loves this sport. He is one of the few players in the world in all three competitions. There are many skiers who compete in only one or two competitions.
“However, this is not always a very popular sport in our country, although our players are among the world’s top. Perhaps because it is not at the Olympic Games – says a student of the Silesian University of Technology.
The popularity of water sports is constantly growing - not only in Poland, but all over the world. There are more and more centres where they can be trained. These disciplines are extremely spectacular, at times extremely dangerous. In water skiing, athletes “fly” over a distance of fifty meters.
- In Poland there are already ten clubs that conduct training - explains Jakub. - In the Polish Championships there are about eighty players and players in different age categories. The best athletes are chosen from the team of the Polish national team.
The World Championships are held only in the open category. In order to start in them, you should “simply” rank among the national leaders.
“You have to train a lot, do your best,” recalls the four-time World Cup medallist. I had a special motivation this year. So far, I have only brought medals from the Polish Championships, and there is still something missing in the world event. I started to wonder that maybe I will never achieve anything in the world championship. But I decided to try again, I trained even harder and finally succeeded.
What kind of competition is it?
The championships at the Wake Zone Stawiki centre in Sosnowiec were held in mid-September and lasted three days. The event was attended by dozens of athletes from ten countries. The competitors competed on water skiing behind an electric ski lift. After passing the elimination, Kuba reached the finals of all three competitions - slalom, figure riding and jumping.
Here we will stop and try to explain what the competition is about in each competition.
Jumps. The most spectacular. The rider makes a run on a hill with a height of 165 cm or 180 cm. The approach speed can reach up to 100 km/h. The athlete who jumps the furthest wins. There are no points for wind or style, as in the case of ski jumping. The current world record is 70 m. the Jakub record is 55.5 m.
Slalom. The player has to bypass six buoys on the outside at a maximum speed of 58 km/h. The initial length of the tow line, which the skier holds, is 18.25 m. In subsequent runs, the rope is shortened – until the skier falls. To the next round go the players who complete the whole journey. The victory is determined by the sum of correctly missed buoys on the shortest possible rope.
Figure riding. The skier performs figures scored by judges. The final result includes the fourteen best-scoring evolutions. Athletes perform, among others, saltworks, 360 and even 540 degrees turns and many others.
Dreams came true
Finally, Jakub Siedlarski became the vice-champion of the world in figure riding, in which he additionally beat the Polish record. He also won three bronze medals: In slalom (additionally a Polish record), three-combination (for the sum of results from three competitions) and in the team classification for the Polish national team.
“It’s definitely my life success, I’ve been waiting for this moment since I was a child,” he says. On everyday basis he trains at KS Zephyr Bytom club. - I counted on medals in the team, figure riding and tricombos. I felt they were within my reach. However, I was most surprised by the medal in slalom because I was not one of the favourites. In this competition I won the medal as the first Pole in history, so I am very happy with it. I have never been so happy. But I want to continue to grow, break my records and be even better.”
Photographs by Monika Kutkowska
