The 2017 beach volleyball season came to an end

The 2017 beach volleyball season is already over for the Poland national team. After the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro many changes occurred among the world’s top pairs of beach volleyball. The Polish teams and their coaching staff followed the trend.

In the senior national team, due to one year's maternity leave of Monika Brzostek, Jagoda Gruszczyńska had become the new partner of Kinga Kołosińska. However, at the end of the season Kołosińska played with Katarzyna Kociołek. Furthermore, Srdjan Veckov was appointed as the head coach.

In the men’s team, after long term partnership on the court, Grzegorz Fijałek and Mariusz Prudel decided to part ways and find themselves new teammates. Grzegorz started to play in pair with Michał Bryl and Mariusz with Kacper Kujawiak. Moreover, Maciej Rudol began playing as partner of Jakub Szałankiewicz (after Michał Kądzioła’s retirement from beach volleyball). Only Piotr Kantor and Bartosz Łosiak’s duo remained unchanged. Grzegorz Klimek became new head coach of men's national team.

A carefully planned preparation period was carried out dutifully by our national teams. The training conditions which were provided in Olsztyn, Warsaw, Spała and during the training campsabroad , let our pairs prepare very well for the season. New methods were introduced to training process in the field of motor and mental preparations, medical care, biological regeneration and physiotherapy. The training conditions are going to get even better thanks to the launching of a new indoor venue with beach volleyball courts in Spała, adhering to the highest world standards.

The post-Olympic year abounded with many important international events - the World and European Championship, World Tour events and well-staffed national championship where our pairs played key roles:

WT Kish Island

2nd place: Piotr Kantor/Bartosz Łosiak

WT Xiamen

2nd place: Jakub Szałankiewicz/Maciej Rudol

WT Rio de Janeiro

2nd place: Piotr Kantor/Bartosz Łosiak

WT Gstaad Major

2nd place: Piotr Kantor/Bartosz Łosiak

Long Beach Presidents CUP

3rd place: Piotr Kantor/Bartosz Łosiak

WT Qinzhou

2nd place: Kinga Kołosińska/Katarzyna Kociołek

WT Final Hamburg

4th place: Piotr Kantor/Bartosz Łosiak

World Championship in Vienna

5th place: Piotr Kantor/Bartosz Łosiak

European Championship in Jurmala

4th place: Kinga Kołosińska/Jagoda Gruszczyńska

European Championship in Jurmala

5th place: Grzegorz Fijałek/Michał Bryl

U22 European Championship in Baden

5th place: Mateusz Łysikowski/Mateusz Paszkowski

CEV Satellite Larnaka

2nd place: Kinga Kołosińska/Jagoda Gruszczyńska

After a short vacation, the Polish senior teams will start their preparations to the 2018 season already in November. It's worth to mention two more issues strongly related with development of Polish beach volleyball.

The school year 2016/2017 was the inaugural year of a beach volleyball class in NLO SMS PZPS (non-public sport high school) in Spała. The work and commitment of the school management and coaching staff provides expected results and will surely translate into the sport successes of our youth and junior teams on international level.

The unquestionable organizational success of 2017 was the World Tour tournament in Olsztyn. The event has already gained a permanent place in the beach volleyball calendar and received the highest grade from the FIVB officials and players.