The bronze medal of the European Games was won by a track cycling team composed of Katarzyna Pawłowska, Nikol Płosaj, Justyna Kaczkowska and Karolina Karasiewicz, who studies Internal Security at the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń.
In the final of the team pursuit, which took place on Mińsk velodrome, the Italians came first, ahead of the British. But for us racing for the bronze medal was more interesting. Over a distance of 4 km the hosting team of the Games, Belarusians, and the representatives of Poland competed. The national team included Karolina Karasiewicz, a member of the dual career program. The Polish women took the lead after 2.5 km and did not give up this lead.
The bronze medalist of the European Games, Karolina Karasiewicz, talks about this race: The team pursuit is a competition in which four contestants compete, "after changes" we cover a distance of 4 km. In the current formula of this competition there are three races. In the first team must get the best possible time, because the eight best qualify for the first round. The results obtained in the first round determine the advancement to the final. The two fastest teams go to the A final and fight for the gold medal. The teams with third and fourth time in the B final compete for the bronze medal. Our team: Karolina Karasiewicz, Katarzyna Pawłowska, Nikol Płosaj, Justyna Kaczkowska, twice gained the third time of the ride, which gave us the opportunity to fight for the bronze medal. In the B final race we were ahead of Belarusians, and gained a time of 4 minutes 25 seconds, which is close to the record of Poland, and this is a better result than that achieved by the representatives of Poland during the Olympic Games in Rio.