Home » News »

WUT student is a double academic world champion

On the photo, there is Marek Kania with the gold medal of the Academic World Championships

Marek Kania was the best in the 1000 and 500 meters races, fot. Paweł Skraba / AZS

Marek Kania from the Faculty of Power and Aeronautical Engineering won two medals at the Academic World Championships in speed skating, which were held in Hamar, Norway (22-25 February 2024). 

At the beginning of the competition, our student ran in the 1000m race and won. It is an even greater success since this is not his distance.

– Before the start I thought that if I managed to win a medal, I would be very pleased but I succeeded in getting the gold so this is beyond my expectations – he said after the competition.

Great emotions were experienced during the 500m race – Marek Kania’s key competition. At this distance he had already won a bronze medal this year in the European championships and the second place in the World Cup competition. At the Academic World Championship, the golden and silver medallists finished the race only four thousands of a second apart. The winner was the Warsaw University of Technology student.

– It was a thriller just like at the academic championships last year, when I fought for the third place; this time it was for the first – Marek Kania said after the race. – I managed to win the golden medal, cool, by four thousands of a second, it was really just a few centimetres, so again a medal I won in the home stretch.

In the Academic World Championship in speed skating, Polish contestants won nine medals (three golden, three silver and two bronze ones). This gave our representation the second place in the medal classification (after Norway and before Japan).