Stars shine In Krakow spectacular
By Maciek Maciantowicz, Squash and Art Festival director in Krakow
Poland knows how to throw a superb squash party. The Squash & Art Festival in Krakow is an annual event connecting the Polish Squash League Finals with artistic activities. There was a great mixture of top world players and Polish teams from all over the country (16 mens, 16 womens and eight junior teams).
This year we were delighted to welcome major international players as Gregory Gaultier, Simon Rosner and Mathieu Castagnet (No. 3, 6 and 11 of the PSA rankings), Laurens Jan Anjema (European Championships bronze medalist), Eddie Charlton (top 50 PSA) as well as Alison Waters and Emma Beddoes (No. 6 and No.13 in the womens rankings).
There was a very good atmosphere in Squash4You club (where most of matches were played) and at an open-air arena built in the city centre, in front of Galeria Krakowska (huge shopping mall with almost 300 shops and a footfall of over 100,000 people every day).
<iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/4LAgLTPq33Y” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe>
Very good squash plus lots of additional activities (dancing and magician shows, photo exhibition and
competition, free squash lessons at the glass court, show matches with juniors and best Polish players, music party and after-party as well as competitions).
Fantastic emotions during mens final on Saturday, beautiful hostesses from Porsche Krakow Bronowice (local dealer of Skoda cars) and champagne shower for top teams.
Good media partners, including TVP Krakow (regional part of national TV) and very popular radio, newspaper and sport magazines (MensHealth / WomensHealth) helped to promote this event.
For the first time ever event was promoted by TV commercials :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_kekHC93rg
and commented online by most popular sport portal www.sport.pl
And for the first time ever we had a pleasure to host a representative of the Sport Ministry.
Summer Squash&Art 2015 was a fantastic introduction to the European Club Championships 2015 – event for the best European clubs, planned for mid-September in Krakow, also hosted by the Squasah4You club with the glass court placed inside this shopping mall at low level.
That will give ua a chance to see it from four levels and draw great crowds from the 100,000 people visiting this place every day.
See You soon in Krakow again!
Squash & Art Festival Summer 2015
Final results of Polish Squash League Finals:
Men
1. SIMPLE KAHUNA TEAM 1
2. Lifestyles.expert Squash4You
3. Squash City & Banach Team
Women
1. MALAKA SQUASH LADIES TEAM
2. Lifestyles.expert Squash4You
3. MYSQUASH GIRLS
Juniors:
1. Squash4you Junior Team
2. Abram Junior Team 1
3. Bene Squash Junior Team
Full results:
http://www.bo5.pl/turniej/Dru%C5%BCynowe+Mistrzostwa+Polski+2015-FINA%C5%81+M%C4%98SKI,234,330.html#brackets results
Pictures by Pawel Dziurzynski