In Focus: Tomasz Fornal
“In this exact moment of the season, we are feeling that we are strong. We are training hard, and I am convinced that we can expect quite the show”, Polish Volleyball star Tomasz Fornal said this week to www.plusliga.pl days before the match between of his Jastrzebski Wegiel and Grupa Azoty ZAKSA Kędzierzyn-Koźle for the first trophy they had on the list this season - the Polish Supercup.
Tomasz and his teammates grabbed the Supercup, winning against the back to back #CLVolleyM champions (3-2). After this performance, fans are more than sure that the players of Jastrzebie-Zdroj will be ready to start the season in Europe’s elite competition on a high note as well, fighting for each point.
Together with his well-known in the Volleyball world teammates - Jan Hadrava, Benjamin Toniutti, Trevor Clevenot, Stephen Boyer, Fornal is looking forward to Jazstrebzki’s first match in the CEV Champions League 2022 Men. On November 8, the Polish host the Serbians from Vojvodina NS Seme NOVI SAD, and Tomasz, one of the Volleyball fans' favourites, will have the chance to lead his team towards first victory.
Volleyball runs through Tomasz veins (his father Marek is a former Volleyball player, two-times Polish Champion with Hutnik Nowa Huta; while his older brother Jan also plays professionally). It is no surprise that the outside hitter brings the love for the game in his heart.
And this can be seen clearly in the way his career has developed. The outside hitter is a member of the Polish national team (a silver medallist at the 2022 World Championship, and a bronze medallist from the 2022 FIVB Nations League in Bologna, Italy). But before joining the senior squad, he played a pivotal role in the underage teams of Poland - for example, in 2015, he won the #EuroVolleyU19M title, in 2016 the #EuroVolleyU20M, and in 2017 the U21 World Champs.
Born in 1997, Tomasz made his debut in the PlusLiga in 2016 in the club of Czarni Radom. Three years later, he joined Jastrzebski Wegiel - where he won the 2021 Polish Championship and two times the Polish Supercup.
In the past seven seasons in the Plusliga, Fornal has played in 178 matches, scored 2115 points, recorded 162 aces and 263 blocks. His best scoring result in the Polish men’s elite so far is 27 points in one match. In the 2022/2023 season so far, Tomasz has scored a total of 72 points (22 in the game against BBTS Bielsko-Biała).
Among his list of achievements are the Best Receiver at the U20 European Championship in 2012 and the award for Most Valuable Player in the Polish Supercup 2021.
With so many good results to his name, Fornal is ready to conquer the Champions League as well.
His performance in the 2022 edition of the competition says a lot about his and his team's ambition (3rd in the final rankings). Fornal finished as 7th Best Scorer - having played in 10 matches (32 sets), scored 126 points, an average of 3.94 per set. In the receivers ranking, he locked in the 15th place - with 30.30% perfect receptions (165 number of receptions).
In the 2022 Quarter-finals, when Jastrzebski disappointed Cucine Lube Civitanova, Tomasz played a key role - scoring 14 and 22 points for the victories in the home and away matches respectively.
What does Tomasz have in store for the #CLVolleyM fans in the upcoming season?
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