The opening ceremony took place in the evening of Friday 16 September. The programme included the presentation of the various disciplines, short plays and dance, and the official speeches by invited guests such as Bishop Irenaeus Pekalski, Auxiliary of the Archdiocese of Łódź; Salesian Provincials Fr Andrzej Wujek (Warsaw), Fr Roman Jachimowicz (Piła) and Fr Jaroslaw Pizon (Wroclaw); the Advisor to the President of Poland, Piotr Nowacki; the Marketing Director of the Polish Olympic Committee - Ireneusz Kutyła, and other local authorities and national representatives of SALOS.
Saturday and Sunday were days of competition. According to the Regulations of SALOS, representatives compete during the year at provincial and regional level in various disciplines - football, volleyball, basketball and table tennis. The winning teams at local level then gather for the annual National Games on Saturday. The finals take place on Sunday.
The detailed results of the competition are available on the official website of the Games: http://igrzyska-lodz.pl. As part of the competition, the "Cup of the President of the Republic of Poland - Andrzej Duda" is awarded to the team with the highest moral and cultural values (this year it went to the SALOS centre in Suwalki), and the Fair Play Award to the team most deserving which this year was that of the centre in Przeczno.
Of course, as well as sport, care is taken also of the human and spiritual dimension, so on the Saturday evening the athletes participated in Mass celebrated by Bishop Pekalski.
At the conclusion of the event medals and trophies were presented by Fr Edward Plen, chaplain of the Polish national team in the Olympics. He thanked all who had worked for the success of the event.
The 25th National Games will take place next year in Krakow.
https://www.infoans.org/en/sections/news/item/1837-poland-24th-salesian-national-youth-games#sigProId2a05a6fb71
