World defending champions Poland have a very tough mission ahead of them. To repeat, would be almost a miracle. The team that reached the highest step of the podium 4 years ago is almost all gone now. Gone are the legends of Paweł Zagumny, Mariusz Wlazły, and Michał Winiarski. Although the team is currently ranked third in the world, behind only Brazil and the USA, it finished last year’s EuroVolley in 10th place, and failed to medal in every World League since their WCH title. Things looked very bright in this year’s VNL, with the team storming to a 10-0 record, but it ultimately finished in 5th place.
However, one of the last remnants of the team’s 2014 gold medal, Dawid Konarski, is very confident the team can turn itself around and aim for a podium finish in this year’s competition:
“We are focused on improving all our shortcomings to the World Cup. Surely we will not be able to do everything 100%, which is impossible, but we will certainly be better prepared for this tournament than for VNL, for which we had almost no time to prepare for it in any way. We know that we have the potential to get a medal there and that will be our goal. We hope to perform at a constant level throughout the tournament. We can’t play a game at 20%, and another at 60%, we need to always keep a high level and this will be the key to winning.”
Luckily for the team, it should have no trouble making out of the WCH’s first round after being drawn to Pool D alongside Finland, Iran, Puerto Rico, Cuba and Bulgaria.
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