Poland’s Albert Stachowiak wins bronze at European armwrestling championships
Albert Stachowiak’s bronze in Codlea came in a 175-entry European field, a sharp sign of how hard the U15 podium has become.
Albert Stachowiak turned a youth division result into a serious European marker, taking bronze for Poland in the U15 right-arm 78 kg class at the 2026 IFA European Armwrestling Championships in Codlea, Romania. In a tournament packed with 16 teams, 175 competitors and 381 entries, that third-place finish was a true podium fight, not a routine consolation.
The championships ran June 11-15 in Codlea, in Brașov County, and the scale of the event showed why every win mattered. The IFA registration page listed the event window from May 1 to May 31, with the competition date marked June 12, a reminder that even the youth brackets were part of a tightly managed continental schedule built around a major multi-day championship.
For Kłecko, the result carried extra weight because Stachowiak was not just another entrant on the European roster. Moje Gniezno identified him as an eighth-grade student in class 8a at Zespół Szkolno-Przedszkolny w Kłecku, making the bronze both a hometown success and a sign that Poland’s junior pipeline is producing athletes ready for international pressure. Sportowe Gniezno reported that he represented Poland and earned the medal in the right-arm category, where the margin for error was razor thin.
That context is what makes Stachowiak’s bronze more meaningful than a simple place on the podium. European arm wrestling has become crowded at every level, and youth divisions now demand the same composure and technical precision seen in senior brackets. A medal in a field this large suggests that Poland is not only entering athletes into championships, but developing them to compete deep into the bracket against peers from across the continent.
The Polish armwrestling federation’s own national team notice for EUROARM 2026 underlined that Stachowiak’s appearance was part of an official pathway into Codlea, not a one-off outing. Combined with Romania’s role as host of the 2026 European championship, the event carried the structure and intensity of a full continental test. For Stachowiak, bronze was the proof point: at just school age, he was already strong enough to make the European podium look harder than ever to reach.
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