Polish volleyballer Bartosz Kurek has been nominated as one of 20 finalists for Polish Athlete of the Year. Winners will be announced at a banquet on January 7th.
This is the 3rd time that Kurek has been nominated for the award.
The competition is open to a fan vote, with social media validation required for a valid vote. Voting can be done at http://plebiscyt.przegladsportowy.pl/.
The 28-year old Kurek has been a member of the Polish National Team since their Euroepan Championship gold in 2009, and was also on the squad when they won the 2012 World League. He was also a member of both the 2012 and 2016 Olympic Teams, though neither of those teams was able to come away with a gold medal.
In Rio, Poland advanced second out of Group B into the quarterfinals, but their they ran into the best game by the American team and fell 3-0 to be eliminated from medal contention. That game had the highest attendance of the tournament of any game not involving the host Brazilian team with 8,278 spectators.
As part of the losing effort, Kurek led the Polish team with 10 kills as the opposite hitter, but he also led the team in service errors, marking 5 errors in 12 total attempts.
In October of this year, Kurek terminated his contract with Japan club JT Thunders Hiroshima, citing both physical and mental fatigue. He returned home and has begun training with Polish squad PGE Skra Belchatow. PGE was the last club he played for in Poland, from 2008-2012, and he was a part of 3 Polish championship teams (2009, 2010, 2011) and helped the team to the 2012 CEV Champions League title as the anointed Best Spiker of the competition.
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