Andrzej Puchacz, Former WMRA Council Member, Passes Away

We are sorry to share the news of the death of Andrzej Puchacz, who served on the WMRA Council from 2013 to 2021.

Andy, pictured in Monaco in 2019 with  fellow members of the WMRA Council, was the manager of the Polish national team manager for many years, starting in 1994, and was involved in bringing many international competitions to Poland, including Masters, European and World Championships.

He served as a member of the WMRA Council from 2013 to 2021, standing down in January of this year. In that time he was a delegate for many international events, including World Masters Mountain Running Championships and the International Under 18 Mountain Running Cup.

Jonathan Wyatt, WMRA President 2017-2021 - "It is with great sadness to see the passing of our WMRA colleague and friend Andrzej ‘Andy’ Puchacz.  He was always an enthusiastic and passionate supporter for mountain running and our community will mourn this loss.  It has been a sad period recently with the passing of both Andy and also former council member Adrian Woods in close succession."

WMRA President Tomo Sarf - "I remember Andy since I joined WMRA. Since the mid-nineties he was one of the iconic team leaders. It was not easy for him to collect a team and bring junior and senior runners from Poland to all the remote places where international events were held. And it was not easy to find organizers for different international events in Poland. With his passion he managed to do this. After 20 years of working on a national level he finally joined the WMRA Council and contributed to mountain running also from this position. In the end of 2021 he informed us that he would not stand for the Council again – he must have known that his future was not optimistic. WMRA will not forget him."