by Alfonz Juck
The Copernicus Cup is a fantastic meet in Torun, Poland. This writer visited that meeting in 2019 and loved it. More than that, I loved the city of Torun, the birthplace of Nicolas Copernicus. The Nicola Hotel, in the town of Torun, is an excellent hotel built in an old mansion with fantastic rooms and breakfast. If I recall, a Kebab shop was open until 3 am, across the street. Being jet-lagged and on a budget, I would spend about Five Euros for a decent dinner. The young man who served me was from Alexandria, Egypt, and he spoke a bit of English. We had a couple of good discussions about travel. I love meeting people and learning about their countries.
The meet has a super interested Polish crowd, which loves track and field and loves their Polish stars. The track was from the SOPOT World Indoor 2014, a nice MONDO track of 200 meters, and the performances had something for everyone.
The 2025 ORLEN Copernicus Cup has some great rivalries, so it should be fantastic. Can you watch it on Sunday, February 16, 2025?
Nugent, Tsegay, Swoboda
TORUN (POL): On Sunday, Strong fields were assembled for the ORLEN Copernicus Cup (WIT Gold). Notable entries include Zaynab Dosso, Torrie Lewis, and Ewa Swoboda in the women’s 60m (late scratch Patrizia van der Weken), Ethiopian Biniam Mehary, who broke the World U20 3000 m indoor record in Lievin this time in the 1500m. Among the highlights are Gudaf Tsegay and Birke Haylom in the women’s 1500m. As usual, the women’s 400 m with Laviai Nielsen, Henriette Jaeger, Rosey Effiong, and Lurdes Gloria Manuel as the main star, Natalia Bukowiecka is out due to injury but could be replaced by former European champion Justyna Swiety-Ersetic. In the field, Olympic Champion Miltiadis Tentoglou faces Mattia Furlani and Tobias Montler in the men’s long jump, Leonardo Fabbri headlines the men’s shot put, Ernest Obiena, Piotr Lisek, Ben Broeders, and Menno Vloon contest the men’s pole vault and Sarah Mitton, Jessica Schilder and Chase Jackson meet in the women’s shot put. World Indoor Champion Tsige Duguma will race again in the women’s 800m (with Shafiqa Maloney and Habitam Alemu), with Lievin winner Ackera Nugent facing a strong European field in the women’s 60m hurdles (Kambundji, Visser, Skrzyszowska). Omar McLeod and Dylan Beard lead the men’s 60m hurdles as home favorite Jakub Szymanski is out due to an injury in the men´s 800 m Polish strong presence against Catalin Tecuceanu and Czech record holder Jakub Dudycha. Extraordinary Women Pentathlon has local hero Adrianna Sulek-Schubert with Bianca Salming and U20 World champion Jana Koscak. The meet is now sold out.
