It was probably the hardest race of my life

Kamil Otowski has claimed his second gold medal at the Paris Paralympic Games, winning the 50m backstroke in the S1 class. “It was probably the hardest race of my life,” he admitted.

My coach and physiotherapist suggest that I change my surname from Otowski to Złotowski. I have to consider it!

– laughed the athlete after leaving the pool, quoted in the statement from the Polish Paralympic Association.

Otowski added that it was much harder for him to win his second gold than his first in the 100m two days earlier.

It was probably the hardest race of my life. Today it wasn’t as nice as the 100m, when I dropped the whole field in the first 50 meters. I made a mistake that cost me a few seconds. When I entered the water, I fell somewhere and couldn’t catch my breath. My first thought was that I didn’t know if I would be able to start. My whole mind escaped. Fortunately, the physiotherapist Oskar managed to calm me down.

– said the player.

I could see that there was something wrong with Kamil, that he was out of rhythm. Luckily, we already know each other so well and are on the same wavelength that I knew how to calm him down quickly.

– confirmed Oskar Małecki-Owczarek.

Otowski quickly took the lead. Already halfway through the distance he was ahead of the others in body length. The rivals could only fight for silver.

Journalists asked him whether, since he had such a long career in Paris, he should choose a few more styles or distances.

In two days I will swim the 200m freestyle, but in a category with competitors who are more capable than me. There I would rather fight to reach the final than climb the podium.

– he realized.

Finally, Otowski decided to greet the entire wheelchair rugby family, as he is also a player for the Polish national team in this specialty.

I know they are rooting for me and I can’t wait to get in the wheelbarrow after my morning water workout and, as we say, “hook some bulls” to annoy them. I love wheelchair rugby and even in the Paralympic Village I tackled two of the best in the world – the French – who I would have caught in a few years!

– Kamil laughed.

In the S2 class of the 50m backstroke, Jacek Czech took fourth place for the second time at the Olympics.

Five medals for Poles

After the next day of games, Poland has five medals. In addition to Otowski’s two gold medals, three bronze medals were won by: Lech Stoltman in shot put (F55) and table tennis players – Karolina Pęk and Piotr Grudzień in mixed doubles (XD17) and Pęk and Natalia Partyka (WD20) in doubles.

On Sunday, Grudzień and Patryk Chojnowski (MD18) will compete in the table tennis doubles final.

Róża Kozakowska, who won the club throwing competition (class F32) on Friday, was disqualified for using illegal equipment. The Polish national team’s appeal was rejected.

tkwl/PAP

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