Poland's men's kayak squad for the Poznań world championships: line-ups, form and medal maths

Published

2026-08-05T11:57:25+00:00

Poland's men's kayak squad for the Poznań world championships: line-ups, form and the medal maths

Poland named its men's kayak squad for the canoe sprint world championships in Poznań (26–30 August) on 3 August. Head coach Ryszard Hoppe sends seven paddlers into six events, keeps the Olympic K-4 together for a fourth consecutive championship, and hands the 200 m single to the national runner-up rather than disturb his priority boat.

Every one of those calls can be read off the clock. The 2026 season is complete: two World Cups, the European championships, the national championships, the junior and U23 worlds, and July's regatta in Montreal. Here is who races, what they have actually done this year, and where the line falls between a good result and a medal on the Malta course.

The squad

Seven paddlers, six events, two double programmes — Vichev and Kajdanek race both the pair and the four. The squad finishes its build-up at the Wałcz training centre, where camp runs until 24 August.

One K-4, four championships

Hoppe's most interesting decision concerns the boat that matters most in Poznań. Jakub Stepun, Valerii Vichev, Sławomir Witczak and Jarosław Kajdanek line up together for a fourth straight championship, and their shared record traces a curve worth reading closely.

It began on a podium. In June 2025 in Račice the crew took European championship bronze in 1:19.64 — 0.32 s behind Portugal and 0.11 s behind the Czech Republic. A month earlier, at the World Cup staged on Poznań's Malta course, the same four won bronze in 1:21.96, 0.62 s off Germany and 0.49 s off Hungary. At the world championships in Milan that August they finished eighth in the A final (1:21.12), 2.19 s down on winners Portugal.

2026 muddied the picture. At the European championships in Montemor-o-Velho the Poles won their heat in 1:18.05 — quicker than the 1:18.50 with which Hungary won the final. In the final itself they came ninth (1:20.62, 2.12 s adrift). Two days separated the fastest and slowest run of the same boat on the same water: heats on Thursday, final on Saturday.

The answer came in July in Montreal. The crew went 1:22.20 in the semifinal, finishing second in it and 1:22.60 in the final — and it is that race the coach means when he talks about half a second. The numbers back him to the hundredth: Hungary won in 1:22.10, Portugal was 0.12 s back, Australia 0.17 s, the Czech Republic 0.35 s, Serbia 0.40 s and Poland, sixth, 0.50 s. Six crews inside half a second, and a place just off the podium instead of on it.

The conclusion cuts both ways. This four can move at medal pace, but it does so unevenly: 2.57 s between a heat and a final at the same regatta is not a spread that weather alone explains. A world championship comes down to a single race — and that race decides which version of the boat shows up.

One more detail is worth noting: in the May World Cups this four never raced together at all. In Szeged and Brandenburg Poland fielded two different fours — Pilarz/Morawski/Vichev/Witczak (third in the B final in Szeged, 1:20.30) and Borucki/Korsak/Leszczyński/Kajdanek (sixth in the B final, 1:20.51). The spring World Cups were a laboratory; the championships have a fixed crew. That is policy, not accident.

Alex Borucki, the face of this team

If Poland wins a single-kayak race in Poznań, a twenty-year-old from Kraków will win it. Alex Borucki, born in 2006, has logged 36 races this season and travelled a distance Polish kayaking has not seen in years.

In June in Montemor-o-Velho he became European champion in the K-1 500 m in 1:37.75, beating Tokyo Olympic champion Josef Dostál by 0.28 s and double Paris gold medallist Jacob Schopf by 0.38 s. The title came back to him after a protest that took the best part of two hours, the jury having first ruled that he had strayed from the axis of his lane. A month later in Halifax he won the U23 world title over the same distance (1:36.94, 1.09 s clear of the Hungarian runner-up) and added silver in the U23 four.

Montreal matters most, though. Borucki went 1:37.41 for fourth — 0.52 s behind Australia's van der Westhuyzen in bronze, 0.98 s behind winner Jacob Schopf, and ahead of the United States, Ukraine, Serbia, Spain and Portugal. That is the "little bit of luck" the coach refers to: in Canada half a second went against him, in Portugal the same margin went his way.

There is a flip side. In Brandenburg he was eighth in the A final over 500 m (3.73 s down), and at the European championships he came ninth in the K-1 1000 m (3:29.29, 4.98 s behind Kravets, racing as an individual neutral athlete). Over the longer distances he is still some way off; over 500 m he belongs. In Poznań he races that event and only that event, which is a decision consistent with the evidence.

His preparation carries one more footnote. In the autumn of 2025 he tore his anterior cruciate ligament and damaged the medial meniscus in running training, underwent knee arthroscopy and did not return to full loading until January. He won the European title five months after that.

Four national titles and one exception

Selection for the single-kayak places was straightforward this year: gold at the Polish championships in Bydgoszcz over 200, 500, 1000 and 5000 m earned a start in Poznań. Four races, four names — and one exception.

Over 500 m Borucki won in 1:38.58 from Witczak (+1.64 s) and Vichev (+1.91 s). Over 1000 m Przemysław Korsak beat Kajdanek by 0.36 s (3:38.91). Over 5000 m Piotr Morawski won in 19:32.17, 2.18 s clear of Rojek. Over 200 m Jakub Stepun took the title in 0:36.25 — by 0.07 s, from Wojciech Pilarz.

Those seven hundredths decided one of the most striking features of this squad. Stepun, world silver medallist in the K-1 200 m in Samarkand in 2024, will not race his signature event at home: the 200 m clashes in the programme with the K-4 500 m, and the Olympic boat comes first. Pilarz takes the place — the national runner-up who finished eighth in the B final in Montreal in 0:36.80.

Across the season Stepun had not rediscovered his 2024 sharpness over 200 m anyway: fifth in the B final in Szeged (0:34.87) and fifth in the B final in Brandenburg (0:37.32). The cost is smaller than the words "world silver medallist" suggest — but symbolically it stings, because Poland is skipping an event in which it stood on a world championship podium two years ago.

The surprises

Kajdanek races two boats, and he was not in the senior group in June. The June call-ups for the senior men's kayak camp in Wałcz listed seven names: Pilarz, Stepun, Witczak, Wiktor Leszczyński, Korsak, Vichev and Morawski. Kajdanek was not among them — and he arrives in Poznań with the heaviest programme alongside Vichev. Born in 2004, he raced the U23 category in parallel this season: silver in the four in Halifax (1:26.58) and fourth in the pair with Mateusz Kubalski (1:31.29), on top of 32 races and a national title in the K-2 500 m with Witczak (1:31.96).

Korsak returns to the single after a season in the pair. All year he raced the K-2 500 m with Leszczyński: disqualified in the Szeged heat, sixth in the A final in Brandenburg (1:37.43), eighth in the A final in Montreal (1:28.76). In Poznań he races the K-1 1000 m, a distance where his best international mark this season was fifth in the Montreal B final (3:47.83). The national title is his ticket; the international benchmark is modest.

Leszczyński misses out entirely. The MKS Czechowice-Dziedzice paddler, national champion in the four in Bydgoszcz (1:23.23) and Korsak's partner all season, found no boat for Poznań. He was on the losing side of the "Polish duel" in Montreal — his pair finished 1.14 s behind Vichev and Kajdanek, and the coach cites that race directly as the basis for the choice.

Morawski takes on a distance he has never raced outside Poland. His national 5000 m title (19:32.17) is the only one of his career over the distance — he had bronze in 2023 (21:37.51) and a non-start last year. For comparison, the 2025 Polish 5000 m champion was Kajdanek (19:41.08). Poznań will be Morawski's first championship race over the distance.

The hypothetical crews

The squad is fixed, but the coaching staff holds more combinations than the announcement shows — and each of them has actually raced together in the past two seasons.

K-2 500 m. Vichev and Kajdanek got the nod on a rising curve: eighth in the A final in Szeged (1:29.54, 2.42 s down), seventh in the B final in Brandenburg, then fifth in the A final in Montreal (1:27.62, 0.95 s behind Serbia). The alternatives from the same season are Witczak–Kajdanek, the national champions (1:31.96, 1.14 s clear of Leszczyński and Pilarz), and Korsak–Leszczyński. A year earlier on the Malta course Poland's pair was Stepun and Korsak, fourth in the World Cup A final (1:31.59).

K-4 500 m. Beyond the selected crew, Poland has two others that raced a full programme together this season: Pilarz/Morawski/Vichev/Witczak (Szeged and Brandenburg) and Borucki/Korsak/Leszczyński/Kajdanek (Szeged and Brandenburg). Both finished in B finals, both in the 1:20.30–1:20.51 band on Hungarian water. If a blade had to be replaced in Poznań, Borucki is the only man in the travelling party who raced a four in 2026 at both senior and U23 level — in Halifax he took silver alongside Kajdanek, Igor Komorowski and Mikołaj Walulik.

Club four versus national four. At the Polish championships the crew selected for Poznań did not race in that configuration at all — the title went to Leszczyński/Vichev/Starowicz/Pilarz in 1:23.23, 0.02 s ahead of the Elbląg crew and 0.12 s ahead of Wojciechowski/Liuliaiev/Witczak/Kajdanek. A useful reminder that the national four is built for one specific race, not as an extension of the domestic pecking order.

What this team can realistically do

The four and the pair are closest to a medal, and that is a reading off the clock rather than an opinion. In Montreal the podium line sat at 1:22.27 and Poland went 1:22.60. Thirty-three hundredths. In the same regatta Vichev and Kajdanek finished 0.14 s off bronze. In events where eight crews fit inside two seconds, that distance closes with one clean start and two good rhythm changes.

The context Montreal does not capture must be added, though. A World Cup in Canada is not the full world field: a world championship brings in crews that stayed home in July, and K-4 times can be several seconds quicker — Milan 2025 was won in 1:18.93, Montemor 2026 in 1:18.50. Poland dipped under 1:19 exactly once this season, in that Portuguese heat.

The singles work differently. Borucki holds the season's best evidence — he beat Dostál and Schopf head to head over the distance he will race in Poznań. A world final adds names from outside Europe and margins tighter than the 0.28 s from Montemor. The realistic target is the A final and a fight for the podium; a medal will hinge on one race rather than on any gap in class.

Elsewhere expectations should be scaled down. Korsak over 1000 m and Pilarz over 200 m ended their international outings this season in B finals, and Morawski enters the 5000 m without a championship reference point. Their stake in Poznań is an A-final place and ranking points.

That is the second layer of these championships. Poznań opens the qualifying cycle for the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, and points won in August carry the greatest weight in that ranking. For crews that spent this season just outside the A final, every top-nine finish is worth more than a single weekend.

Frequently asked questions

Who represents Poland in the men's kayak events at the Poznań world championships?

Seven athletes: Alex Borucki (K-1 500 m), Wojciech Pilarz (K-1 200 m), Przemysław Korsak (K-1 1000 m), Piotr Morawski (K-1 5000 m), Valerii Vichev and Jarosław Kajdanek (K-2 500 m), and Jakub Stepun, Vichev, Sławomir Witczak and Kajdanek in the K-4 500 m.

When are the world championships in Poznań?

Canoe sprint and paracanoe both run from 26 to 30 August 2026 on the Malta regatta course — it is one combined championship.

Why is Jakub Stepun not racing the K-1 200 m?

The 200 m clashes in the programme with the K-4 500 m, and the Olympic four is the squad's priority. The place goes to Wojciech Pilarz, the national runner-up, who lost to Stepun in Bydgoszcz by 0.07 s.

Which Polish boat has the best medal chance?

The K-4 500 m and the Vichev–Kajdanek pair. In the Montreal World Cup final the four was sixth, 0.50 s behind Hungary and 0.33 s off the podium, while the pair was fifth, 0.95 s down.

How has Alex Borucki's 2026 gone?

European gold in the K-1 500 m (1:37.75), U23 world gold over the same distance (1:36.94) and U23 silver in the four, fourth in the Montreal World Cup final (1:37.41) and the national title (1:38.58) — 36 races in all.

How has the Polish K-4 500 m trended?

European bronze in Račice 2025 (1:19.64), World Cup bronze on the Malta course in 2025 (1:21.96), eighth at the world championships in Milan (1:21.12), ninth at the European championships in Montemor-o-Velho (1:20.62) and sixth at the Montreal World Cup (1:22.60).

Do the Poznań world championships count towards Olympic qualification?

Yes. Poznań is part of the qualifying pathway to Los Angeles 2028, and points won there carry the heaviest weighting of any regatta this season.

Racing on the Malta course begins on 26 August, two days after the squad breaks camp in Wałcz. For Alex Borucki it will be a first senior world championship as a favourite; for Stepun–Vichev–Witczak–Kajdanek it is a fourth championship together and the first in front of a home crowd. Every heat and final is tracked on the championship page.

Read next: Great Britain's team for Poznań — ten sprinters and a women's K-4 that finished 0.02 s behind Poland.

Read next: Australia's team for Poznań — the men's K-4 that finished 0.33 s ahead of Poland in Montreal.

Read next: Denmark's team for Poznań — the women's K-4 that raced just behind Poland in Brandenburg.

Read next: Italy's team for Poznań — twenty-one athletes and a changing of the guard in the canoe.

Read next: Hungary's team for Poznań — 37 names and the strongest squad in the field.

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