Ksawery Masiuk Completes Backstroke Hat Trick on Day 3 of Polish Nationals

2023 POLISH NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

• April 26-29, 2023
• Olsztyn, Poland
• LCM (50 meters)
• Results
• Day 2 Recap

Ksawery Masiuk completed his hat trick in the backstroke events at the 2023 Polish National Championships on Friday, holding off Kacper Stokowski in the 50-meter backstroke to claim another title in Olsztyn.

Masiuk, 18, clocked a 25.03 in his signature event to beat Stokowski by a quarter-second in the final. The two Polish backstroke specialists tied for the 100 back title on Thursday (53.74), qualifying for the Paris 2024 Olympics in the process, while Masiuk came from behind to steal the 200 back (1:59.01) on Wednesday.

“I admit that I don’t swim very well here, because it’s not my target competition,” said Masiuk, who was over half a second slower than his national-record 24.44 from February’s Grand Prix Puchar Polski. “But I am very happy with this race. After all, in 50 meters, one mistake is enough to ruin the chances of success. Fortunately, I avoided this mistake. Now I’m graduating from high school, that’s my next goal.”

Last year, Masiuk took bronze in the 50 back (24.49) at the 2022 World Championships in Budapest, Hungary. This season, he’s ranked fourth in the world rankings among eligible Worlds competitors (not counting Russia’s Kliment Kolesnikov or Pavel Samusenko) behind Hunter Armstrong (24.30), Pieter Coetze (24.36), and Isaac Cooper (24.38).

Masiuk recently announced he’s no longer attending NC State after the Paris 2024 Olympics, instead opting to stay in Poland to train with national team coach Pawel Wolkow.

With a 25.28, Stokowski was close to his personal-best 24.98 from last year’s European Championships. The NC State senior told SwimSwam on Friday that he’s returning to the Wolfpack next season for his final year of collegiate eligibility.

Dawid Wiekiera was close to qualifying for Worlds with a 200 breast victory in 2:10.85, just about half a second shy of the ‘A’ cut (2:10.32). The 20-year-old was just off his lifetime best of 2:09.99 from last April. Wiekiera said he’s hoping to hit the automatic Worlds qualifying standard in the 100 breast on Saturday.

Krzysztof Chmielewski won the 200 fly in 1:56.00, about a second off his personal-best 1:55.01 that he’s aiming to break at Worlds this summer. He was on the back half of a tough 400 free double where he had placed second (3:53.64) behind Filip Zaborowski (3:53.57) earlier in the evening by just .07 seconds. Chmielewski had already booked his spot in Fukuoka before this meet along with Katarzyna Wasick, Adela Piskorska, Paulinda Peda, and Masiuk. So far this week, Adrian Jaskiewicz (51.70 100 fly) and Stokowski (53.74 100 back) have joined them under the Worlds ‘A’ standards.

This week’s action in Olsztyn also saw the 19-year-old Piskorska lower her Polish youth record to 59.76, bringing it under a minute for the first time. Her previous best stood at 1:00.16 from the Berlin Open last week.