Poland’s medal count at the Olympic Games in China rose from two to six. Polish fans are expecting more good news from Beijing today. Among the hopefuls is gymnast Leszek Blanik, pole vaulters Anna Rogowska and Monika Pyrek, runner Marek Plawgo and weight lifter Robert Dolega.

Danuta Isler reports.

One could say that the last few days were magic – Poland’s medal count at the Olympic Games in China finally started moving and rose to six. It all started on Friday with Tomasz Majewski who won the mens' shot put with a career best 21.51 meters thus claiming the first track and field gold medal at the Beijing Olympics.

‘We finally have a gold medal, we also have a silver medal in fencing so I think the Polish team is finally rolling up its sleeves and getting down to business. We are moving up in the overall classification past Tobago and other countries which have won more medals so far. It can only get better from now on.’

In the following days in the men’s final quadruple sculls rowing event Poland’s Konrad Wasielewski, Marek Kolbowicz, Michal Jelinski and Adam Korol came first, ahead of the Italian and French crews. In the men’s lightweight four final Lukasz Pawlowski, Bartlomiej Pawelczak, Milosz Bernatajtys and Pawel Randa placed second. Another silver for Poland was captured by weightlifter in the 94 kilo category Szymon Kolecki. And Agnieszka Wieszczek won her match for bronze against Spain’s Maider Unda in women’s freestyle wrestling in the 72 kilogram category. This is the first Olympic medal in history for a Polish woman wrestler. Tomasz Włodarczyk of the ‘SuperExpress’ sports desk has been watching these performances very closely:

‘I think that one of the biggest successes that we didn't actually expect was the team of quadruple sculls who got silver medal. They weren't in the group of favorites so it was a big achievement for them. Also, Tomasz Majewski of shot put - American athletes were bigger favourites then him so I think gold medal was a big achievement for him. And Szymon Kolecki in weightlifting - although he is a silver Olympic medalist from Athens he had a bad (knee) injury just before the Games so I think silver is good enough and that's a big success.’

Prior to the event the head of Poland's Olympic Committee, Piotr Nurowski said that swimming, canoeing, yachting and fencing were the strongest assets of the Polish team which is the largest squad Poland has ever taken to the Olympics apart from the games in Moscow and Munich. So far the results have not matched expectations just to name the failures of Polish swimmers or star tennis player Agnieszka Radwanska. Tomasz Włodarczyk again:

‘Obviously we have to talk about our swimmers. We expected at least a few medals from Otylia Jedrzejczak, from Pawel Korzeniowski but as we already know they did not get anything. Nowadays all the teams prepare to the Olympics quite similarly  so I don't think Poland was any worse from, I don't know, United States or Great Britain. They weren't in their biggest form of their lives. It was slightly different than four years ago. I would say it is more up to our athletes to train harder. Maybe if they relax after the Olympics, they go back home and think about the whole situation they will notice their mistakes as well.’

During the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens Polish athletes only won 10 medals while only two winners reached the Olympic podium for the first time. The head of Poland's Olympic Committee, Piotr Nurowski, said that if the medal trophy is more modest this year, he will submit his resignation.