ALREADY AFTER THE 57TH CHAMPIONSHIP 20, MARTÍNKOVÁ AND HLAVÁČ RULED THE OLOMOUCK TWENTY.

Author of the article: Lucie Nekulová / Author of the photos: Honza Nekula

RESULTS / ERGEBNISSE:

MČR 20 KM WALK / TSCHECHISCHE GEHEN-MEISTERSCHAFTEN 20 KM

TOTAL 20 KM and 10 KM WALK / GESAMT GEHEN 20 KM und 10 KM

TOTAL COMPLETE / GESAMT COMPLETE

The 57th year of the traditional walking race was hosted last weekend in Smetanovy Sady, Olomouc. This year, the race was held not only as a WA bronze race, but also as a MČR and the first round of the extraleague competition. Despite the original plan, the penalty zone was not applied during the race.

After the rainy days, the weather cleared up, the sun sometimes shone, the pleasant temperature was spoiled only by the occasional wind.

IMG 0702 LargeThe day started with children's 1km competitions. The athletic spawn fought bravely and hopefully their athletic enthusiasm will last for years to come. Unfortunately, walking is not included in student team competitions, so children will most likely run away to other disciplines without competitive opportunities.

The trio of male and female students set a number of personal records, the first to cross the finish line Šimon Václavík from Frýdek-Místek in OR 16:07 and beat the Slovak veteran in 2 minutes Ondreje Malika. He overcame Miroslav Myska, another fighter from trainer Nejezchleb's hatchery by 5 seconds. She beat the girls Slovak Lasicová just 7 seconds from Frydek Eliška Říhová, the pilsner in a large passenger car was also on their heels Aneta DojčárováOlomouc legend Václav Dostalík (born in 3) also passed the goal of the 1940km race in 26:18. Admirable.

At the 5km distance, he won in the start-finish style Frýdečák Vojtěch Novák (outdoor OR 24:52). In the end, the coach from Ostrava insisted on this Ketner. Third place was taken by a student from Turnov Ondřej Plecháček. In the women's 5km race, only the female competitor from Prague took part Ema Kyselicová and in 18 seconds she missed the 30-minute mark.

The men's 10km race had only one favorite. Originally registered for the 20km race Irishman Brendan Boyce due to an illness, he changed his plans and started the half distance instead. He secured a sovereign victory with a beautiful technical performance in a time of 42:37. He went to see him for further improvement of the OR from Rumburk Albert Kukla. The cooperation with Karel Ketner's training group from Ostrava greatly benefits this, he is improving in terms of performance and technique, he improved his performance from Rumburk by more than a minute to 47:33. He will certainly try to improve further this week in Satalice, and if he misses the nomination for Poděbrady, it will only be a shame for Czech walking. The third was more than 10 minutes back from the limit Petr Havránek.  For the first time, the winner of the 60 km race got under the 10-minute mark and immediately significantly - Tereza Pittnerová from Vrchlabí (58:09). The second came Kačka Nedvídková from Rumbur already in a time of over 61 minutes, third was Nestorka Czech walk Martina Netolicka from Liberec.

IMG 6672 LargeAnd then 20 men (of which 12 to MČR) and 7 women (11 to MČR) took part in the 8 km race. The three-man group Hlaváč - Gdula - Saulkrezis (Latvia) immediately took the lead. Lukáš Gdula was the first to drop out of this trio, over which Jaromír Morávek, who broke away from Adam Zajíček, ran over him. However, Moravek was soon disqualified and thus completed his Olomouc disqualification hat trick. A little over 6km didn't take too much strength from him, so he decided to start the following day at MSR Slovakia, which the Slovaks immediately allowed him to do. After the night crossing in Banská Bystrica, he performed a de facto flawless race and reached not only the Poděbrady limit of his age category, but also the best Czech performance - 1:28:40. The limit for ME22 is within reach, so we can look forward to his and Zajíček's performance in Poděbrady. A lap later, Adam Zajíček also passed the struggling Lukáš. At about 10 km, Vít Hlaváč started to lose to the confident Latvian, but he was able to keep pace for the Czech title. His style looked technically very good, but to everyone's surprise, the draft board began to blush seriously. During the race, both Hlaváč and Gdula faced a real threat of DQ, most competitors received at least one warning. After about 11 km, veteran Martin Nedvídek imitated the Morávka DQ (knees) and after the second Olomouc DQ in a row, he probably won't have much desire to travel to this race in the future. The same applies to Moravka. I have to say that my husband took about 1000 photos of the race. And we can't be surprised at the DQ, but also at the reprimand for the de facto perfectly going Hlaváč.

He became the winner of the race Latvian racer Saulkrezis, who beat the successful defending champion by almost a minute Víta Hlaváča (AC TEPO Kladno, tr. Větrovcová). However, the performance of 1:28:51 is probably not one that Vítek would brag about. He finished in second place within the MČR Adam Zajíček (Atletika Poruba, tr. Ketner) in second best career performance - 1:30:04. He too faced red targets. He then struggled to defend third place Lukáš Gdula (AC Hvězda Pardubice, tr. Čermáková), but he will certainly not be satisfied with the performance of 1:37:03.

Me personally then at the finish line he raved about the performance of veteran walking sponsor Pepa Smola. He sat at the finish line completely exhausted for a long time, because he raced at the MČR as it should be within the MČR. Not for safety, for training, for well-being, but for performance at the limit of one's own possibilities. A joy to watch.

IMG 1036

IMG 6909 LargeShe was the only favorite in the women's race. Eliška Martínková (USK Prague, tr. Čermáková) for the first lap and a half, she tried to keep up with the men's trio Nedvídek-Rízek-Kolář, but she could not keep up their pace and in the training pace she ran out for a commanding victory. However, the time of 1:41:36 is not among those that we would like to remember in connection with the seventh European Championship in Munich. Juniors Klimentová - Franklová fought for another medal from the start. Both girls worked together in an exemplary manner and took turns in dictating the pace, then in the last quarter of the race she started Ema Klimentová (AK Šternberk, tr. Sadil/Čermáková) and with a performance of 1:48:54 she won the silver medal. Then the third came Alžběta Franklová (SK Jeseniova, tr. Korbel/Čermáková) with a performance of 1:50:02. For both juniors, this is the first start at a 20km distance, and they most likely started mainly for points in the extra league competition. They also entered the competition in the jerseys of the extra-league club, and can only thank the fairness of the competitors behind them, because if other competitors had lodged a protest, they would probably have succeeded. Even such a Vít Pavlišta did not receive a medal from the Czech Republic in 2018, because of a poorly chosen jersey.

The performances of the juniors offer a comparison with the year 2020, when the juniors Martínková and Zikmundová also started their first year as part of the covid MČR. At that time, Martínková took the bronze in a time under 1:43, while Zikmundová was awarded the potato medal with a time of 1:45:21. A year later, the then fresh junior Klára Hlaváčová finished fourth with a performance of 1:49:38. Zikmundová was third in Olomouc (9 minutes behind second junior Martínková) with a performance of 1:48:26. The performances of some of the other female competitors were greatly influenced by completing the 35 km race 3 weeks ago in Dudince. Klára Hlaváčová (V Dudince silver) struggled from the first meters and in the end did not finish the race. Štěpánka Pohlová and Nelly Bugárová (in Dudince 3 and 4), who also felt the longer distance in their legs, showed a fighting performance. Johana Petříková and Michaela Bakliková also got under the 2h mark.

The MČR is so successfully behind us. The link to the photo gallery from the race will be placed on the fcb page in the coming daysnce Zcompetitive walking in the Czech Republic.

IMG 0970 LargeAt the end, however, I would like to allow myself one non-sporting comment. Since I returned to the Czech Republic two years ago and started occasionally attending walking races, I regularly hear complaints from younger female competitors. Not for the quality of the track, the length of the distances or the performances of the judges. But to the behavior and comments of many male veteran competitors, officials and judges. Sexist comments really don't belong in this day and age. Who is raising their eyebrows in disgust with a sigh, why am I pulling some American "woke" here, think about whether any of you would care for veteran racers to comment on your daughters' or granddaughters' bottoms at the start, or offer to warm up their nice legs when they are so cold The contestant won't say anything to the gentlemen concerned, not because she would be flattered by such remarks, but because she is put in an embarrassing situation and she is definitely not happy about it. In a few years, the men will remember how they met friends at the given race (and I don't just mean Olomouc), how they performed well, etc., but the women in question will remember the place of the race even in 30 years that there was some deranged pig with an annoying comment . Gentlemen, if you think that such comments never bothered anyone, you are wrong. It's just that today's teenage girls allow themselves to talk about it more and more. After discussing with a number of female athletes of the past, they all confirmed to me that similar comments occurred across disciplines and were offensive, embarrassing for them and they still remember them to this day. For those who don't understand how to talk politely with girls and what to say in front of them, think before you say something, whether a similar comment would be made if the girl's father was standing next to you.

And so, in conclusion, I will use the now winged "Decency above all". Just as some young male and female athletes should learn to say hello when they arrive at the stadium, many older athletes should be careful with their words.