Zagumny, Pavel

Youth

Pavel Zagumny was born on October 18, 1977 in Jaslo . In his childhood, his main hobby was sports games and, first of all, volleyball, since his parents were coaches in this sport. In volleyball, Pavel chose the role of his father, Lech, who used to be the liaison of the Warsaw “Legia”, and the idol for the young athlete was Peter Blanzhe, the Dutch national team ^[1] .

At the age of 13, Pavel began training at the Youth House of Culture ( MDK ) in Warsaw under the direction of Krzysztof Zimnitsky. In 1995 he became the champion of the country among young men and the best binder of the junior championship.

Club career

In the fall of 1995, Pavel Zagumny moved with his parents from Warsaw to Radom , the first professional club of his career was the local Charney, where, despite the role of a binder, he was the highest player in the team ^[2] . In 1997, he transferred to the Szczecin “Mauger” by Hubert Wagner and, according to the results of the first season in the new team, for the first time in his career became the prize winner of the Polish League Championship .

A further increase in the skill of a volleyball player was facilitated by the game in the Italian A1 Series for Padova. In 2001 and 2002, Zagumny participated in the Italian Championship Stars Matches and in both games as a member of the legionnaires team defeated the Italian national team. In 2003 he returned to Poland and for six seasons he played in the team of the Student Sports Union from Olsztyn , repeatedly won medals in the national championship.

He spent the 2009/10 season in the Panathinaikos in Athens, after which he again began to play in the Polish league in the ZAKSA club from Kendzezhin-Kozle . Since 2015, he played for the Warsaw Polytechnic. In the spring of 2017, he completed his playing career and moved to work as the sports director of the Polytechnic ^{[3] [4]} .

In the Polish national team

Pavel Zagumny's debut in international competitions took place in 1996: in Netanya, as part of the youth team, he won the European Championship for players no older than 19 years old, and at the international tournament in Patras he held his first match for the national team and entered the white-red application to the Atlanta Olympics . Under the leadership of Viktor Krebok, Polish volleyball players were unsuccessful, losing in all the matches of the group stage, and Pavel himself appeared occasionally on the court.

In 1997, a second success was achieved in the youth team: at the World Championships in Manama, Zagumny won a gold medal and was noted as the best binder of the tournament.

Since 1998, he regularly played for the Polish national team, in particular, that season he participated in the debut of the World League tournament and the World Cup in Japan for the Polish team. At the World League tournament in 2002, for the first time in his career, he acted as captain of the national team.

At the second Olympics in his career, in Athens 2004 , Pavel Zagumny played a little because of an injury, coming on for replacements instead of Andrzej Stelmakh . In 2005, a fracture of his fingers did not allow him to take part in the European Championship , but the next season, having regained his place in the main team, Zagumny became the silver medalist of the World Championships in Japan and won the prize for the best binder of this tournament. In 2007, he was recognized as the best passer in the final tournament of the World League in Katowice , where the Polish team took 4th place.

At the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, Zagumny played in all six matches of the Polish team, which, like four years earlier, failed to overcome the quarterfinal barrier: having taken the Italians from two starting sets, the Poles brought the matter to the fifth game, in which they played against their opponent 5 matchballs, but eventually lost. Pavel Zagumny received an award for the Olympic medal tournament’s best match (his game score was 9.87 perfect passes on average per set, while Brazilian Marcelinho , who took second place in this ranking, was 8.79, and Beijing 2008 champion Lloy Ball from US team - 6.30) ^[5] .

Pavel Zagumny received another individual title at the 2009 European Championship . On September 13 in Izmir, the Polish national team, having defeated the French volleyball players in the final, for the first time in history won the gold of the continental forum. Pavel went to the awards ceremony in number 13 shirt, owned by his teammate fiddler Sebastian Svidersky , who did not take part in this tournament due to injury ^{[6] [7]} .

For most of the 2011 season, Pavel Zagumny did not play in the national team, but before the start of the World Cup 2011 he returned to its squad ^[8] and won the silver medal of the Cup. In 2012, for the thirteenth time in his career, he was a participant in the World League tournament and for the first time won a gold medal in this competition. At the Olympic Games in London, he spent three matches for the national team, which again dropped out of the tournament after the quarter-finals, losing to the Russian team in it.

In 2014, the 36-year-old Pavel Zagumny joined the national team to participate in the home world championship , saying that this tournament would be his last as a player of the national team ^[9] , and put a golden point in his career - the Polish team won the championship. In the final against the triumphs of the three previous Brazilian world championships, Pavel effectively replaced his young colleague Fabian Jizgu.

In just 18 seasons, Zagumny spent 427 matches in the Polish national team, which is the second indicator in its history ^[10] .

Family

The father of Pavel Zagumny Lech (born in 1947) in the 1960s and 1970s played for the Warsaw Legia, in which he won 3 Polish championships (1967, 1969, 1970), and Varshavyanka, and after the end of his playing career he worked coach of women's and men's clubs of the Polish League ^[11] . Athlete's mother Hannah also defended the colors of Lehi in the past.

In 2003, Pavel Zagumny married Olivia Brohotskaya, they have two children - Victoria and Mikolay.

With national teams

• European Champion among youth teams (1996) .
• World Champion among youth teams (1997) .
• World Champion (2014) .
• Silver medalist of the World Cup (2006) .
• European Champion (2009) .
• Silver medalist of the World Cup (2011) .
• World League Winner (2012) .

With clubs

• Winner (1994/95) and silver medalist (1995/96) of the Polish Junior Championship.
• Silver (1997/98, 2003/04, 2004/05, 2010/11, 2012/13) and bronze (2005/06, 2006/07, 2007/08, 2011/12) prize - winner of the championships of Poland .
• Winner of the Polish Cup (2012/13, 2013/14), finalist of the Polish Cup (2008/09, 2010/11).
• Silver medalist of the Greek championship (2009/10).
• Greek Cup Winner (2009/10).
• Finalist of the European Volleyball Confederation Cup (2010/11).

Personal

• The best binder of the world championship among youth teams (1997).
• The best binder of the World Cup (2006).
• The best binder of the “Final Six” of the World League (2007).
• The best binder of the Olympic Games (2008) .
• The best binder of the European Championship (2009).
• The best binder of the Polish Cup (2009, 2011).
• Member of the Italian Championship Star Matches (2001, 2002).

• Golden Cross of Merit (December 5, 2006) - for outstanding sports achievements ^[12] .
• Cavalry Cross of the Order of the Renaissance of Poland (September 14, 2009) - for outstanding sports achievements ^[13] .
• Officer Cross of the Order of the Renaissance of Poland (October 23, 2014) - for outstanding achievements in sports and the promotion of Poland in the world ^[14] .

• Biography on the website of the Polish Olympic Committee (Polish)
• Pavel Zagumny - Olympic statistics on Sports-Reference.com