Katarzyna Kowalska (born 7 April 1985 in Lipno) is a Polish

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

 long-distance runner who specialises in the 3000 metres steeplechase. She represented Poland at the 2008 Olympic Games and reached the final of the 2009 World Championships in Athletics

2009 World Championships in Athletics

The 12th IAAF World Championships in Athletics were held in Berlin, Germany from 15–23 August 2009. The majority of events took place in the Olympiastadion, while the marathon and racewalking events started and finished at the Brandenburg Gate....

. She also competed at the 2006 European Athletics Championships and the 2007 World Championships

2007 World Championships in Athletics

The 11th World Championships in Athletics, under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations , were held at Nagai Stadium in Osaka, Japan from 24 August to 2 September 2007...

.

Kowalska was Poland's best finisher at the 2010 IAAF World Cross Country Championships

2010 IAAF World Cross Country Championships

The 2010 IAAF World Cross Country Championships were held at Myślęcinek Park in Bydgoszcz, Poland on 28 March 2010. It was the first time in over twenty years that Poland hosted the annual championships, having previously held them in Warsaw in 1987. Kenyan runners dominated the competition, taking...

. She has won numerous medals at under-23 level, including two golds at the European Athletics U23 Championships

European Athletics U23 Championships

The European Athletics U23 Championships is a biennial athletics competition for European athletes under the age of 23, which is organized by the European Athletic Association...

 and a bronze at the European Cross Country Championships

European Cross Country Championships

The European Cross Country Championships is an annual international cross country running competition. Organised by the European Athletic Association, it is the area championships for the region and is held in December each year...

.

Career

Her first international competition was the 2004 IAAF World Junior Championships, where she finish fourth in her heats. Kowalska won the steeplechase

Steeplechase (athletics)

The steeplechase is an obstacle race in athletics, which derives its name from the steeplechase in horse racing.-Rules:The length of the race is usually 3000 m; junior events are 2000 m, as women's events formerly were. The circuit has four ordinary barriers and one water jump. Over 3000 m, each...

 gold at the 2005 European Athletics U23 Championships

2005 European Athletics U23 Championships

The 2005 European Athletics U23 Championships is the 2005 version of the European Athletics U23 Championships. It was held in Erfurt.-Men's Results:-Women's:-Medals table:-Notes and references:* *...

. In 2006 she won a bronze in the European Cup and at the 2006 European Athletics Championships she recorded a personal best of 9:42.50 in the qualifiers before going on to finish ninth in the final. She represented Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

 in the 5000 metres

5000 metres

The 5000 metres is a popular running distance also known as 5 km or 5K in American English. It is one of the track events in the Olympic Games and the World Championships in Athletics. "5000 metres" refers to racing on a track and "5K" usually refers to a roadrace or cross country event...

 at the 2006 IAAF World Cup

2006 IAAF World Cup

The 10th IAAF World Cup in Athletics was an international track and field sporting event, held under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations, which took place on 16 and 17 September 2006 at the Olympic Stadium in Athens, Greece....

 in Athens

Athens

Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...

 but finished in last place. She ran at the 2006 European Cross Country Championships

2006 European Cross Country Championships

The 13th European Cross Country Championships were held at San Giorgio su Legnano in Italy on 10 December 2006. Mohammed Farah took the title in the men's competition, while Tetyana Holovchenko won the women's race.-Men individual 9.95km:...

 in the under-23 race and although she finished ninth, she headed Poland to the team silver medal

Silver medal

A silver medal is a medal awarded to the second place finisher of contests such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, and contests with similar formats....

.

She won the gold medal at the 2007 European Cup and retained her title at the 2007 European Athletics U23 Championships

2007 European Athletics U23 Championships

The 6th European Athletics U23 Championships was held between 12 and 15 July 2007 in the Gyulai István Athletic Stadium in Debrecen, Hungary.- Men :- Women :-Medal table:-References:General*-External links:**...

 with a personal best run of 9:39.40. She made her first global appearance for Poland at the 2007 World Championships in Athletics

2007 World Championships in Athletics

The 11th World Championships in Athletics, under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations , were held at Nagai Stadium in Osaka, Japan from 24 August to 2 September 2007...

 later that year, getting eliminated in the heats stage. In December, she won the individual and team bronze medals in the under-23 competition at the 2007 European Cross Country Championships

2007 European Cross Country Championships

The 14th European Cross Country Championships were held at Toro in Spain on 9 December 2007. Serhiy Lebid took his seventh title in the men's competition and Marta Domínguez won the women's race.-Men individual 10.7km:Total 57 competitors-Men teams:...

. She represented Poland at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, but again failed to progress beyond the heats of the steeplechase. Having recorded a new personal best time of 9:26.93 in the heats, Kowalska reached her first global senior final at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics

2009 World Championships in Athletics

The 12th IAAF World Championships in Athletics were held in Berlin, Germany from 15–23 August 2009. The majority of events took place in the Olympiastadion, while the marathon and racewalking events started and finished at the Brandenburg Gate....

 and finished in twelfth place. She was selected to run at the 2009 IAAF World Athletics Final

2009 IAAF World Athletics Final

The 7th IAAF World Athletics Final was held at the Kaftanzoglio Stadium in Thessaloniki, Greece on September 12 and September 13, 2009. The competition represented the culmination of the 2009 IAAF World Athletics Tour, a selection of athletics meetings which began on September 20, 2008 at the...

 and she finished in eighth.

After winning the Polish Cross Country Championships in 2010, she attended the 2010 IAAF World Cross Country Championships

2010 IAAF World Cross Country Championships

The 2010 IAAF World Cross Country Championships were held at Myślęcinek Park in Bydgoszcz, Poland on 28 March 2010. It was the first time in over twenty years that Poland hosted the annual championships, having previously held them in Warsaw in 1987. Kenyan runners dominated the competition, taking...

 in Bydgoszcz, Poland, and was the host's best performer with a 36th place finish in the women's senior race.

Personal bests

Event	Time (min Minute A minute is a unit of measurement of time or of angle. The minute is a unit of time equal to 1/60th of an hour or 60 seconds. In the UTC time scale, a minute on rare occasions has 59 or 61 seconds; see leap second. The minute is not an SI unit; however, it is accepted for use with SI units... )	Venue	Date
1500 m	4:12.66	Warsaw Warsaw Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most... , Poland	15 June 2008
3000 m	9:28.44	Zagreb Zagreb Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately above sea level. According to the last official census, Zagreb's city... , Croatia	31 August 2008
3000 m steeplechase	9:26.93	Berlin Berlin Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union... , Germany	15 August 2009
5000 m	15:50.65	Słupsk, Poland	9 September 2007

• All information taken from IAAF profile.

Achievements

Representing
2004	World Junior Championships 2004 World Junior Championships in Athletics The 2004 World Junior Championships in Athletics was the 2004 version of the World Junior Championships in Athletics. It was held in Grosseto in Italy.-Men:-Women:-Medals table:-References:*. GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2010-06-06....	Grosseto Grosseto Grosseto is a city and comune in the central Italian region of Tuscany, the capital of the Province of Grosseto. The city lies 14 km from the Tyrrhenian Sea, in the Maremma, at the centre of an alluvial plain, on the Ombrone river.... , Italy	4th (heats)	3000 m st.
2005	European U23 Championships 2005 European Athletics U23 Championships The 2005 European Athletics U23 Championships is the 2005 version of the European Athletics U23 Championships. It was held in Erfurt.-Men's Results:-Women's:-Medals table:-Notes and references:* *...	Erfurt Erfurt Erfurt is the capital city of Thuringia and the main city nearest to the geographical centre of Germany, located 100 km SW of Leipzig, 150 km N of Nuremberg and 180 km SE of Hannover. Erfurt Airport can be reached by plane via Munich. It lies in the southern part of the Thuringian... , Germany	1st	3000 m st.
2006	European Cup	Málaga Málaga Málaga is a city and a municipality in the Autonomous Community of Andalusia, Spain. With a population of 568,507 in 2010, it is the second most populous city of Andalusia and the sixth largest in Spain. This is the southernmost large city in Europe... , Spain	3rd	3000 m st.
	European Championships	Gothenburg Gothenburg Gothenburg is the second-largest city in Sweden and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated on the west coast of Sweden, the city proper has a population of 519,399, with 549,839 in the urban area and total of 937,015 inhabitants in the metropolitan area... , Sweden	9th	3000 m st. 2006 European Athletics Championships – Women's 3000 metres steeplechase The women's 3000 metres steeplechase at the 2006 European Athletics Championships were held at the Ullevi on August 10 and August 12.First women's steeplechase event in European Athletics Championships...
	IAAF World Cup 2006 IAAF World Cup The 10th IAAF World Cup in Athletics was an international track and field sporting event, held under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations, which took place on 16 and 17 September 2006 at the Olympic Stadium in Athens, Greece....	Athens Athens Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state... , Greece	8th	5000 m
	European Cross Country Championships 2006 European Cross Country Championships The 13th European Cross Country Championships were held at San Giorgio su Legnano in Italy on 10 December 2006. Mohammed Farah took the title in the men's competition, while Tetyana Holovchenko won the women's race.-Men individual 9.95km:...	San Giorgio su Legnano San Giorgio su Legnano San Giorgio su Legnano is a comune in the Province of Milan in the Italian region Lombardy, located about 20 km northwest of Milan.... , Italy	9th	U23 race	Individual
			2nd		Team
2007	European Cup	Munich Munich Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat... , Germany	1st	3000 m st
	European U23 Championships 2007 European Athletics U23 Championships The 6th European Athletics U23 Championships was held between 12 and 15 July 2007 in the Gyulai István Athletic Stadium in Debrecen, Hungary.- Men :- Women :-Medal table:-References:General*-External links:**...	Debrecen Debrecen Debrecen , is the second largest city in Hungary after Budapest. Debrecen is the regional centre of the Northern Great Plain region and the seat of Hajdú-Bihar county.- Name :... , Hungary	1st	3000 m st.
	World Championships 2007 World Championships in Athletics The 11th World Championships in Athletics, under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations , were held at Nagai Stadium in Osaka, Japan from 24 August to 2 September 2007...	Osaka Osaka is a city in the Kansai region of Japan's main island of Honshu, a designated city under the Local Autonomy Law, the capital city of Osaka Prefecture and also the biggest part of Keihanshin area, which is represented by three major cities of Japan, Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe... , Japan	11th (heats)	3000 m st.
	European Cross Country Championships 2007 European Cross Country Championships The 14th European Cross Country Championships were held at Toro in Spain on 9 December 2007. Serhiy Lebid took his seventh title in the men's competition and Marta Domínguez won the women's race.-Men individual 10.7km:Total 57 competitors-Men teams:...	Toro Toro, Zamora Toro is a town and municipality in the province of Zamora, part of the autonomous community of Castile and León, Spain. It is located on a fertile high plain, northwest of Madrid at an elevation of 740 meters.... , Spain	3rd	U23 race	Individual
			3rd		Team
2008	Olympic Games Athletics at the 2008 Summer Olympics Athletics at the 2008 Summer Olympics were held during the last 10 days of the games, from August 15 to August 24, 2008, at the Beijing National Stadium. The Olympic sport of athletics is split into four distinct sets of events: track and field events, road running events, and racewalking...	Beijing Beijing Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's... , China	11th (heats)	3000 m st.
2009	World Championships 2009 World Championships in Athletics The 12th IAAF World Championships in Athletics were held in Berlin, Germany from 15–23 August 2009. The majority of events took place in the Olympiastadion, while the marathon and racewalking events started and finished at the Brandenburg Gate....	Berlin Berlin Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union... , Germany	12th	3000 m st. 2009 World Championships in Athletics – Women's 3000 metres steeplechase The Women's 3,000 metres Steeplechase event at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics was held at the Olympic Stadium on August 15 and August 17...
	World Athletics Final 2009 IAAF World Athletics Final The 7th IAAF World Athletics Final was held at the Kaftanzoglio Stadium in Thessaloniki, Greece on September 12 and September 13, 2009. The competition represented the culmination of the 2009 IAAF World Athletics Tour, a selection of athletics meetings which began on September 20, 2008 at the...	Thessaloniki Thessaloniki Thessaloniki , historically also known as Thessalonica, Salonika or Salonica, is the second-largest city in Greece and the capital of the region of Central Macedonia as well as the capital of the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace... , Greece	8th	3000 m st.
2010	World Cross Country Championships 2010 IAAF World Cross Country Championships The 2010 IAAF World Cross Country Championships were held at Myślęcinek Park in Bydgoszcz, Poland on 28 March 2010. It was the first time in over twenty years that Poland hosted the annual championships, having previously held them in Warsaw in 1987. Kenyan runners dominated the competition, taking...	Bydgoszcz, Poland	36th	Senior race
	European Championships	Barcelona Barcelona Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of... , Spain Spain Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...	10th	3000 m st.	9:42.47 2010 European Athletics Championships – Women's 3000 metres steeplechase The women's 3000 metres steeplechase at the 2010 European Athletics Championships was held at the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys on 28 and 30 July.-Medalists:-Records:-Schedule:-Heat 1:-Heat 2:-Summary:-Final:-References:* *...

External links

• Sports-reference profile