Ace of Sport. Jan-Krzysztof Duda or Anita Włodarczyk? The grandmaster comments

“As Sportu 2021” is a plebiscite in which users of the Sport Interia website choose the best Polish athlete in this calendar year.

At the beginning, the Readers selected the best sixteen, who faced each other in pairs, in the knockout system. She won the third place in the poll Maria Andrejczyk, and Anita Włodarczyk and Jan-Krzysztof Duda got to the finals.

You can read the rules of the As Sport 2021 plebiscite in this place.

The Polish grandmaster has come a difficult path. On the way to the decisive fight, I had to defeat Wojciech Nowicki, Robert Lewandowski and Maria Andrejczyk in the vote. As Duda admitted in an interview with Interia, he himself was surprised by how our plebiscite was going.

– I must admit that I was very surprised by the course of the Interia “As Sportu 2021” plebiscite so far. I was very happy that I passed the preliminary stage, but when I saw my “bracket” with Stoch and Lewandowski on the way to the final, I passed a kind of “deja vu” from the World Cup in Sochi, where the situation was similar – Griszczuk, Carlsen and Karjakin in the final. I followed the plebiscite very closely and my amazement and joy grew from round to round – said our grandmaster in an interview with Interia.

Duda was certainly supported by a group of chess fans who are becoming more and more popular in Poland.

– As you can see, the Interia portal has quite a large group of readers-chess players, because their votes gave me the promotion to the finals, in which I fight with the “queen of sports”, that is Anita Włodarczyk. This alone is a great honor for me and gives me a sense of belonging to a sports family. Unfortunately, sometimes chess players are discriminated against in the sports environment, and yet we train in the same way as footballers, athletes or ski jumpers (I myself jump up, swim or run). And our competition is not only physically exhausting, but also has a huge impact on the psyche – which was evident during the world championship match. I would like to thank the chess fans for the votes cast so far and I encourage you to make another effort.

The final vote started on Tuesday and will end at noon on Thursday when the winner is known.

– The day after the final result of the plebiscite is announced, I will play in Katowice in the European Blitz Championship. It will be my next – but not the last – start in Poland this year, because after Christmas in Warsaw the World Championships in rapid and blitz chess will be held with the participation of all the world’s leaders – said Duda.

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