On 8 September the town of Piła was the runner's capital of Poland. Nearly 2.500 runners participated in the 23rd PHILIPS International Half-Marathon Piła. This race is classified as a part of the Men's Championship of Poland, the Team Championships of Uniformed Services of Poland and the Academic Cup of Poland in Half-Marathon. This year 2431 runners completed the PHILIPS Half-Marathon Piła, which is a record and which proves that the Piła half-marathon enjoys ever growing popularity and develops dynamically. It was the second time that ASA, represented in the race by the ASA Team Running for Health, participated in the event as a partner and sponsor.
"Participation in the race in Piła is a great test before the marathon in Warsaw or Berlin. Held 3 weeks before the 42.195 km race, this half-marathon is an ideal way to verify one's condition. Thanks to that, it is easier to specify the objectives for the marathon and to select the best strategy with respect to one's current condition." These are the words of Henryk Paskal, the President of the Polish Association of Road Races, the AIMS ambassador, and the founder of the half-marathon in Piła.
The winner of the 23rd PHILIPS Half-Marathon Piła was Joshua Munywoki from Kenya who covered the distance of 21.097 km in 01:03:05, thus outdistancing his compatriot, Martin Mukule (01:04:09) by more than a minute. Marcin Błaziński was third, with a time of 01:05:04, and thus he won the title of the Champion of Poland in the Half-Marathon.
(source: www.pila.halfmarathon.pl)
Runners from the ASA Team Running for Health, who participated in the Piła marathon in a large group, gave us a lot of joy. The teams from Poznań, Gdynia and Wrocław had the largest number of representatives.
Igor Tomiczek, trained by Tomasz in Wrocław, achieved the best result with a time of 01:23:35, which in the classification of Men's Championship of Poland gave him the 13th position!
The remaining participants were also satisfied with their results, even though the weather was not very favourable (it was too hotJ ), and after the race almost everybody came to ASA's tent to have a commemorative photograph taken.