Brno, Czech Republic, September 1, 2014. Two Polish players seemed a notch happier than their teammates after their victories in Preliminary Pool II of the 2014 CEV U20 Volleyball European Championship - Men in Brno. Wing spikers Rafal Szymura and Tomasz Fornal both celebrated their birthdays during the first three competition days of the finals and were duly recognized for that by both their teammates and their fans.
Rafal Szymura, born on August 29, 1995, turned 19 on opening day of the European Championship and after Poland’s victory over Slovenia was presented with a birthday cake in the shape of a volleyball.
Rafal will be playing for AZS CZESTOCHOWA during the upcoming 2014-2015 season after he earned silver from Poland’s domestic U20 championship with his previous team TS Volley RYBNIK. In 2013 he was on the Polish U19 squad that won bronze at the FIVB Volleyball Boys’ U19 World Championship and silver at the CEV Youth Volleyball European Championship - Boys where he was honored as Best Receiver.
“The result 3:1 against Slovenia was the perfect present for me,” Szymura said on his birthday. “I would not mind if I received such gifts from my teammates through the end of this championship. I believe we will get to the final and there we will also try to win. It is going to be hard for us, but I think we can do it.”
At least this far, his birthday wish is coming true. Poland won two more games and is still unbeaten after three competition days. On August 31, the team survived a five-set battle with Turkey and as part of the victory celebration Tomasz Fornal was thrown in the air by his teammates. The reason – he turned 17 that day.
Tomasz is the youngest player on the Polish roster for Brno. He has not been part of the starting line-up for the three matches so far, but he always entered the game as a substitution and gave his contribution towards the victories. Before the match with Turkey he was certainly hoping to get the same present as Rafal – not the cake, the victory.
“If we win, I will be very happy. I hope we will be successful at the end of the tournament and we will celebrate all these nice moments together," he said then. After the end of the game Tomasz commented: “This is a great present for my birthday! I did not play too much, but I am glad I could be on the court. It was a very tough and emotional match for us, but we are happy that at the end we reached the victory.”
On club level, Tomasz Fornal plays for PGE Skra BELCHATOW. With his team, he won the bronze medal from Poland’s domestic U20 championship this year. In the same season he was also part of the team of SMS PZPS SPALA that won Poland’s Mloda Liga.
Poland continues its campaign at this European Championship on Tuesday with a match against Romania. Whether or not the team will continue to fulfil Rafal’s and Tomasz’s birthday wishes remains to be seen, but they will certainly give their best to do it.
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