Juniors and seniors gather at Kielce
“I hate Mondays!” How often have you caught yourself thinking this, when you needed to go back to work after some long holidays? The players of Vive Tauron Kielce, however, do not seem to know this feeling.
On Monday, the VELUX EHF Champions League winners had their first training session for that small number of people still in town: Julen Aguinagalde, Paweł Paczkowski, Darko Djukić and Patryk Walczak. The rest of the squad is fighting for medals at the Olympic Games in Rio.
“I haven’t taken a part in training with just four players before,” said Paczkowski. “But we will have some help from the second team, so we will get up to normal numbers.”
Despite being small in numbers, the team was in a great mood. They were joined by some young players from the second team in order to be able to kick off some group exercises.
The main part of training was a mini-football game with players split up according to their age. “Hey, Julen, you don’t fit anywhere,” joked Paweł Paczkowski. Indeed, the 33-year-old Spaniard could have felt like a grandpa with all these youngsters around him.
Kielce will only be back at full strength when the 13 players playing at Rio 2016 return.
Until then head coach Talant Dujshebaev left the club under the caring eye of second coach Tomasz Strząbał.
He admits that it is not a comfortable situation for the team, but they have their solutions. “We added some young players to lead it sensibly,” he says, “Our older players need to practice, simultaneously we want to show the youth that we are watching them and giving them a chance.”
Furthermore, Talant Dujshebaev predicted the situation and granted his charges some long holidays and now signed an additional player, Patryk Walczak.
“For clubs such as Kielce, PSG or Barcelona the Olympic year is extremely hard. That’s why I asked the club to sign a contract with the 17th player. I’m glad that he is with us to help in this difficult season,” explains the coach.
The young line player is full of energy and excitement. “I couldn’t wait to start the training, so I was practising by myself. I’m really curious and ready to start the season!”
However, Kielce’s real obstacles will appear after Rio when the coaches have to cope with the tiredness and different levels of players’ shapes-
Then there will only be two weeks left until the Super Globe in Doha and the start of the domestic league. The returning players will get some time to relax. The length will depend on when particular players will re-appear in town. If necessary, some of them may get days off during the first league matches.
“They have been training hard since June and we were enjoying two months of holidays! Definitely they will need some break,” says Strząbała.
TEXT:
Magda Pluszewska / ts