One pair of shoes and two runners win three golds in Sunday of success

Polish runners have taken four gold medals at the European Indoor Athletics Championships in Vienna, with the same pair of running shoes featuring in victories by two athletes. On Saturday Marcin Urbas won the 200 meters by just one hundredth of a second, with Robert Mackowiak, one of Poland's top 400 meter runners, coming third. However, even greater success awaited Polish athletes yesterday. First, 21-year old sensation Marek Plawgo won the 400 meters, running in shoes belonging to his roommate Pawel Czapiewski, after his own had been stolen on Friday. Only 90 minutes later Czapiewski donned the lucky shoes himself and won the 800 meter race, taking the lead 50 meters from the finish line. The Polish team, including Mackowiak and Plawgo, who was running in Czapiewski's shoes again, completed the gold rush by winning the 4 by 400 meter relay race in convincing fashion. In the women's 4 by 400 meter relay the Polish team took the silver, while Monika Pyrek added a bronze in the women's pole vault, bringing the medal tally to seven, the most won by Poland in 22 years. (Gazeta Wyborcza, p.1) T.J.