“Take care of the pennies and the pounds wil take care of themselves” ()
For good, Spartan Armwrestling Club presented themselves to Poland and the world in 2019 when it organized the Polish Championships in the capital, Warsaw, for the first time in history of Polish armwrestling. Namely on its right, Vistulan side. In HULAKULA ROZRYWKOWE CENTRUM MIASTA club. If I remember correctly, we reached a record turnout of both competitors and clubs at these championships.
Two clubs, Spartan Rymanów and Spartan Warszawa, for the time of the competition, join hands to become one Spartan Armwrestling Club. In the general team ranking they got the 5th place back then, right behind the “solid” favorites, so Niedźwiedzie, Tury and “UKS 16”. In seniors - 6th place, in masters – similar.
The medals for the club were earned by: ALEKSANDER NATALIA, BIEGA ADRIAN, BIEGA DAMIAN, BIEGA GRZEGORZ, BILAŃSKI PATRYK, DŁUGOSZ KATARZYNA, FURTAK EWELINA, NOWOTARSKI GRZEGORZ, OSTROWSKA MAŁGORZATA, PODGÓRSKI MARIUSZ, PODGÓRSKI WIESŁAW, PRUŚ DAWID, SŁOWIK KAMILA, SYNOWIEC ADRIAN.
This year, 2021, at the Gniew Castle, in the 21st Polish Championships the team rankings were as following: Spartan in general - 4th place, in seniors - 4th place, in juniors - 5th place, in masters - 4th place. Conclusion? They climb up the ladder systematcally.
PeSzy: Grzegorz, just like I asked Marcin Lachowicz, the “chief” of Armfight Piaseczno, I will first ask you about... transfers!
Grzegorz Nowotarski, the founder, trainer, chief and athlete of Spartan Rymanów and Spartan Warszawa: You must mean the transfer of Małgorzata Ostrowska to our club. It became a fact a few years ago.
PeSzy: Please, share the backstage of this transfer with us, after all, Małgorzata is our “export” competitor.
Grzegorz: The backstage is that it was a friendly transfer. We just liked each other a lot and the transfer is a result of that.
PeSzy: I'm going to ask one question and I expect a long and detailed answer: how did it all start and go. Take the mic!
Grzegorz:
My armwrestling adventure began about 2002 when I went with a friend to a competition to Złoty Smok Kielce. The first amateur competition, with Kamil Jabłoński and Radek Trybus. It was a small but very atmospheric event. The beginnings were not spectacular, I trained sporadically but because of university I didn't start too often back then.
Link to the competition below:
PeSzy: Here I have to interrupt Grzegorz's story.
I want to bring your attention to the fact that all (at least my Polish acquaintances) Judo athletes write the name of their discipline with a capital letter. No football player will write that he plays Football. But Armwrestling and Judo athletes – yes. They symbolically pay respect to their passion, to their sport in this way. End of digression. Back to Grzegorz:
In the next few years I let go of Armwrestling for a while to focus on Judo (students' group). A few years later I decided to once again try armwrestling and in 2009 I participated in Konin at the Debuts and took the 2nd place in 80 kg.
And that's how it started...
The closest club that could offer me some technical refinement was in Nisko (Dariusz Groch and friends). Once a few weeks I would visit the guys to train my technique a little.
In 2011 took place the 11th Polish Championships in Nisko. Since I wasn't in any club, Darek took me under his club's wings. The next starts were not easy, I took the 6th and 7th place. But you know what they say - take care of the pennies and the pounds wil take care of themselves. Regular training and developing my skills showed satisfying results.
Grzesiu started with the Wiking Nisko club because we were the only club in Subcarpathia back then. From the perspective of a few years I can say that he's a perfect example of an athlete who systematically makes progress and, despite his first losses, doesn't give up. His first starts at the Polish Championships in Nisko 2011 resulted in places way behind the podium. Now he goes to competitions as a favorite, moreover, he organizes tournaments on his own and also judges duels and supports the development of armwrestling in Poland, which I'm very grateful for.
My own club, 2012
In 2012 I changed Wiking Nisko to Spartan Rymanów. You could say that it was then that my adventure with professional armwrestling started. After the success at the Polish Championships in 2014 where I took the 3rd place, the club in Rymanów became more and more popular with the youth.
Move and continuation
In 2017 I opened another club, Spartan Warszawa, which also keeps getting bigger and better every year.
In the club we put most emphasis on the juniors because they are our future. Without the youth our sport will just die. Of course, we don't just have juniors training with us, the age range of our athletes is about 16-70 years old so we have a full age spectrum in Spartan.
The trainings take place both in Rymanów and Warsaw, more information on our sites.
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PeSzy: Thanks for the interview and see you!
Grzegorz Nowotarski: Thanks and see you too!
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