Skiing
Ski stars are shining bright

Buy photos » Ski stars Maria (top) and Magda (bottom) are pictured in action. (s)

TALENTED athletes are continuing to put Pershore’s Abbey Park Middle School on the map, with Polish ski stars the latest to shine.

The school is rapidly becoming a centre for sporting excellence as it is already familiar with several swimmers who have been at the top of the British rankings, whilst it is now proud of two young skiers of international stature.

This came about in September with the arrival of two young girls from the town of Lodz in Poland.

Maria, aged 11, and Magdalena Luczak, aged ten, are certainly proving they have the X-Factor when it comes to the sport of skiing as they regularly travel to and compete for their Italian club of Falcade in Veneto.

Even though they live in Worcester, the family chose Abbey Park for the pair to attend thanks to its friendly, safe, fun and hard-working atmosphere.

The girls come from a sporting family as their grandparents have represented Poland in both volleyball and basketball and their mother Iwona is a highly successful Polish ice skater herself.

The two girls’ first sport was swimming, in which they still compete for their most recent club of Worcester. By the age of three they were trying ice-skating and only two years later the elder sister Maria had finished seventh in the Polish Figure Skating Championship for eight-year-olds, whilst younger sister Magda came 18th for seven-year-olds in the same year.

Eventually they reached a level when training began taking them away from school studies, so they moved on to another sport where little did they know they would end up achieving even greater heights.

The girls had always found skiing fun but again it was not long before their talent shone through, with Maria entering herself and her younger sister Magda in the Polish Championship during the winter of 2008/09.

Whilst Maria came second in her first season and third the following year, Magda actually won her age group two years running, with both girls also becoming schools Alpine Champions.

Starting from last year they competed in the Italian ‘Dolomite League’ in which Magda came second and Maria third. Magda went on to win her age group in what is generally considered to be the Italian National Championships.

Even though work has brought the family to English shores, they still travel to Italy whenever possible to continue their tough training and competition schedule.

They arrived back in the new year with Magda fresh from her successful second (under 11) place in the giant slalom in the major Italian National League and looking all set to qualify for the finals in March.

Sister Maria in the same competition, but on a more difficult course, set off at such a pace that it became too rapid for her ski edge at one of the gates and she slid out of control into the holding fence, but was mercifully uninjured.

Maria needs to recover quickly as she wishes to prove herself again in the next leg at the end of this month.

In doing this they are receiving great support from their headteacher Lynn Evans and the staff of Abbey Park Middle, enabling them to do this during half-term and end of term breaks.

The girls really appreciate how well the staff and friends have helped them settle in quickly and in turn the school are deeply impressed and proud of Maria and Magda’s blossoming talent.