Author of the article: Lucie Nekulová / Author of the photo: Jan Nekula

RESULTS

Lusatian Race Walking in Zittau took place on Saturday, October 25.10, 2025 on new tracks. The race was organized thanks to the support of the project Interreg in a unique Czech-German cooperation of clubs O-SEE Zittau and AC Rumburk was held for the fourth time. The organizers and competitors closely followed the truly terrible forecast, but in the end everything turned out much better. Even though in some parts of the course it was so windy that the assistants could not manage to deliver hot tea to the judges. The race was attended by 200 walkers from 22 countries of the world! The Czech Republic Championship was held, the Hungarians also had a championship race, and the Central German Short Distance Championship was held in Zittau again. The Liberec region was then holding its championship, and the ČAS manager Tomáš Krištof came to present the medals. Traditional finisher headbands from the Rein brothers' pen and it was great to see how many athletes competed with previous editions on their heads.

The race was started with a joint start for children and youth at 1 / 2 / 3km. 18 hopeful runners lined up at the start of the kilometer, which was dominated by the Slovak Riečanová Nelka in an excellent time of 4:46 and beat her teammate Matthew Kucera by 6 seconds. 23 children set off for the 2 km start and the race was dominated by the guys from Germany. Romello Kroll (10:54) beat in the end by 3 seconds Simon Bauer, the best girl in the overall standings took bronze Clara Weihart (11:16), who beat the finishing Slovak woman in her personal best performance by just one second Simona Holecová. The third place among the girls was won by the team from Mladá Boleslav Adele Hulkova in a significant personal best of 11:35.

There were 18 competitors in the top three as well. The race was dominated by Michal Bencik with a time of 14:42, he took silver Latvian Grandãls and the Slovak fighter finished third Veisenpacher (16:02). The Slovak woman also dominated the girls' race Nela Ščíbranova in a personal best of 15:16. A minute back was the German Neither Schenk and the bronze medal went to the competitor from Frýdek-Místek Veronika Zvonkova (17: 02).

And then came the marathon and half marathon, new distances in the walking repertoire. 43 men and women decided to try the half marathon distance. The start-finish line flew along the course with a commanding Mexican Roberto Vásquez Guiot - 1:25:26. The Mexican walkers completely dominated the podium as they ran for bronze Porcayo Villareal Isaac in 1:29:23 and defended the bronze Brandon Perez in front of the finishing and badly attacking American Nick Christie.

An Italian woman reigned supreme among women Giulia Gabriele, bronze medalist from this year's U23 European Championships, who mastered the course with a time of 1:38:16. 54 seconds behind, she finished the race fourth from this year's U20 European Championships Mina Stankovic. The talented Serbian competitor managed to improve the national record for 20km thanks to the official split time and was therefore doubly happy at the finish line. The Greek beauty crossed the finish line in third place Christina Papadopoulou, this year's participant in the World Championships in Tokyo (1:39:57).

26 athletes decided to run the premiere marathon. The defending gold medalists from last year, the Polish athletes, were also at the start. Ben Hlima and Katarzyna Zdiebło. Hlima went ahead from the start and quickly built up a lead. But the long course, the more demanding conditions, when it was really windy at times, all of this took away his strength at every step. And so the race started to become extremely interesting. For a while he led Italian Agrusti, then he was in charge German Karl Junghannß, he/she/it asked for the floor Hungarian Helebrandt, it was back and forth. Ben Hlima really fought, but his legs still remembered the Tokyo double and in the end it was fourth place - 3:07:51. With gradually increasing performance, he finally worked his way to the front of the race permanently Citrus and was the first to cross the finish line. It was held by none other than the Olympic champions. They had come to watch the race. Antonella Palmisano and Maria Perez. Both of them first helped at the refreshment stand, then took on the role of hostesses and welcomed the Italian at the finish line. He hung the silver medal around his neck Němec Karl Junghannß in 3:04:51 and the Hungarian champion won bronze Matthew Helebrandt - 3:07:26. The competitors were very competitive for the bronze and it was not at all certain how many actually reached the finish line.

The women were clear from the first meters. They set off bravely, with a smile and commitment Katarzyna Zdzieblo for another Zittau victory. She also went in last year's Zittau headband and then carefully hid this year's at the finish. The Polish woman was really excellent, a concentrated quality performance, when she never even got above the 5min/km mark, to cross the finish line in 3:24:19. An amazing lady who showed last year in Zittau that she had solved two years of technical problems and this year showed a flawless performance. She rose to second place on merit Magaly Bonilla, the sixth woman from this year's Dudince, who came from Ecuador for a time of 3:34:11. And she ran really beautifully, one of those competitors who is beautiful to look at. The third place was taken by another Polish woman, Agnieszka Ellward (3:37:03) and the Poles have already announced that the next Polish Marathon Championship will be in Zittau 2026!

After the 2-hour marathon race, so that they wouldn't be so alone on the course after finishing the half marathon, the marathoners were given company in the form of 5 and 10 km competitors. The crowd of more than 70 athletes of all ages was amazing. The 5 km race was dominated by Simon Batovsky (17) from Krupina, Slovakia, improved her personal best by almost a minute to 21:59. In the junior women's category, the Slovak Pernicka with a performance of 23:44 qualified for the U20 World Championships in Oregon next year and also for the U18 European Championships in Rieti. Pernicka is only 15 years old! Third place in the U18 category was taken by a Czech teenager, also 15 years old, Noemi Majak (27:04) and third in women was Frýdek Eliska Kokorova.

Big things were happening on the 10 km track. German junior Nick Joel Richardt Although he was a few seconds behind his personal best, the time of 41:23 still meant a great and confident victory for him. Another Slovak athlete improved his personal best by 2 minutes Jakub Batovsky and took third place overall Jakub Mažgút - 44:01. The representative of the organizing team did an amazing job. Junior Vojtěch Vejvančicky, who regularly meets the judges' targets in the Czech Republic, stood up to the international ones with a first place, not registering a single motion. With a very confident performance in the solo race, he finished with a negative split for a great personal record of 46:35 and claimed the junior national jersey for Poděbrady 2026. He cut more than a minute from the best Czech U20 performance of Dan Mochal from Liberec and took 7th place overall in the top ten. Bravo and big congratulations to the coach ReinAnother local fighter also did great. Stanislav Borisov from Kazakhstan, who wears the colors of AC Rumburk and surprised a lot with a time of 48:48. Stando, that's great! Even the Hradec Králové George Arnost was happy with his personal record, with a performance of 51:34 he managed to defeat the great Hungarian talent Ligeti.

The victory in the women's race was taken by a German woman. Mia Bandoli, who enjoyed a personal best and victory in the Central German Championship - 50:27. Another at the finish line, also a German athlete Mary Carries Carniel awarded 65 sec. She took the bronze to Erfurt Laura VöI asked.

Veterans also showed great performances and great fights, British fighter Steve Allen He fought hard in the last lap and overtook the Polish rider in the home straight. Mirek Luniewski (1:01:12 vs. 1:01:16).

And then there was the Czech Championship. The 0th edition of the Czech Half Marathon and Marathon Championships has been approved. When the organizers themselves found the condition of the ČAS Presidency that there must be at least 5 competitors in the category, it was clear that a problem was brewing. They were assured by TD Veverka that there would be no problem, competitors could register for both courses and then they would see each other. Despite the warning in the direction of the repre section, the condition did not change and so they waited with excitement to see what the applications would look like. Jarda Moravek, knowing the Czech conditions, preferred to register for the race directly via the organizer's website. She did the same Klimetová and Nedvídek. And they did well. 3 duplicate applications made a hell of a mess. What could have been handled with three phone calls in 15 minutes took almost 3 days despite the emergency. Yes, only on Wednesday did the organizers receive a decision on what would happen with the Czech Championships. They say everything is going well, only the women's half marathon is being cancelled. No, competitors really cannot do both courses when the penalty zone time and the start location are different... The organizational team was shuddering at the thought of defending the results list completely against the rules to World Athletics. One would have expected the ČAS technical delegate to know this. Fortunately, the head of the ČAS competition department knows the rules and so they waited for another decision. First, the half marathon was cancelled, competitors started registering for the race for their own and increased entry fees and another change was made. It's not a marathon like the Czech Championships, but a half marathon... This was exemplary Czech Schweinerei and the German colleagues were, to put it mildly, embarrassed. And those Czechs too...

So how did our athletes do? Among women, Ema Klimetová in time 1:43:03, which is an average of 4:53. She won 6th place overall and gained experience at a new distance. Elizabeth Frankl she ran 1:49.38 (avg. 5:11) and finished 12th among women.

Among the men, it was about medals. Well, not really, ČAS decided not to award medals. So the organizers gave out their own. The competitors deserved it. At first, the Czech group was led by a trio. The clear favorite Vítek Hlaváč, with him Lukáš Gdula a Albert Kukla. A couple followed them Nedvídek - Hanyk and then a fighter from Břeclava returning from injury Jarda Hawthorn, who felt the training deficit from the whole season a lot and Hradec Králové Rosta Kolar. Lukáš Gdula after 10km he started to lose, Welcome to Albert were fighting for victory. In the last quarter, there was a fight and at one moment one had a meter lead and then the other again. Less than 3 laps before the finish, he managed to Albert Kukla Increasing the pace, Vítka pulled, broke and finished for his first senior non-title title in a time of 1:33:07 (6th overall). Vitek Hlavac He finished 51 seconds behind for silver and experienced his first defeat in the championship competition on home soil since the incoming generation. Thank you, Vítek, for being a motivation for the boys! Lukáš Gdula crossed the finish line in third place, but was soon disqualified by the referee because the judges did not like his technique much in the last two rounds. And so he deservedly rejoiced at the bronze Martin Nedvídek from Rumbur (1:42:25), who dragged Hanyk away for most of the race, who tried to break him at 17km. And he shouldn't have done that, the acceleration didn't do him any good, he slowed down and one of the race organizers took care of it. He gave Hanyk 21 seconds at the finish and made the rest of the organizing team very happy.

And what happened at the marathon? A pair of Czechs set off Moravek - Bunny. It was Zajíček's first big long experience, Morávek already tried 35 km in Zittau last year and fought for a long time to participate in Tokyo this year. The Zittau race also showed how unfortunate it was that he did not get a wild card. Jarda Moravek He announced in advance that he wanted to go for a hard limit at the European Championships next year. As he said, he did. From the beginning, he kept the pace at the limit in cooperation with his Slovak coach Dominik Černý. From the 30th km he tried to accelerate and at the finish he was in 5th place, less than 20 seconds behind Ben Hlimou in a time of 3:08:10, which made him 3 minutes off the qualification limit and joined the already qualified Vítek! Fantastic performance. At the same time, he was the first Czech to secure a ticket to the World Team Walking Championships in Brazil in April. He also performed excellently on the track Adam Zaječek. It is clear that, unlike Jarda, he has no experience of the 35 km course. And yet he went great. 20 km before it became clear that the training deficit due to the season-long heel problems was not eliminated, but the experience was huge. Adam repeatedly tried to speed up and gained a solid basis for qualification next year. Time will tell whether we will have three marathon walkers at the European Championships. It would be great.

This year's Zittau was special in terms of the use of technology. The German referee, who also officiated on site, Kilian Wenzel created simple software for judges and the organizers decided to test it in the demanding conditions of the Zittau race, where there are a large number of starters and races are taking place on several distances at the same time. The system passed without a single error and was praised by everyone.

Unlike other systems, whose creators charge a lot of money, this one from Kilian is available for free. The organizer only had to invest in purchasing phones for all the judges, arrange the connection, and off they went. Kilian, bravo!

 This year's Zittau race, included in the World Tour with a silver mark, was really successful. High-quality performances, a wide starting field, many friends at the start and among the spectators. Excellent stream presented by Adam Nedvídek and above all the dedicated work of all the organizers. A big thank you to the project Interreg and Euroregion NISA. It wouldn't be possible without you. Maybe again in a year at the signs in Žitav.