Pedestrian weekend at home and in the world. Great performance by Zajíček in Ostrava, NR France in Nantes and fast relays in Italy.
The weekend walk brought a number of interesting results. We wrote about the Turkish championship and Eliška Martínková's triumph in another article, but other pedestrian events also deserve our attention.
Championship of Moravia and Silesia, 21.1. 2024, Ostrava:
ADAM ZAJÍČEK 5.000m walk 19:53,42!!! BRAVO, BRAVO, BRAVO!!!
A total of 41 male and female walkers took part in the race, while the Moravian competitors were supplemented mainly by competitors from AK Plzeň in the open race.
3000 girls took part in the schoolgirls' 11 m race. Viktorie Vaňková won in the new OR 17:04. This competitor has already broken the 17-minute mark outdoors, and it is obvious that she will soon succeed indoors as well. The winners' podium belonged entirely to competitors from Frýdek - Místek, Viktoria was joined by Veronika Zvonková and Adéla Krausová also in OR.
Among the pupils, Daniel Herman from the Břeclav section managed to win, the title and the new OR - 16:33.99. In a close finish, Miroslav Myška, also from Frýdek, lost by 3 hundredths of a second. Hynek Svoboda, a member of Karel Ketner's Ostrava walking and running group, won third place and the limit for MČR in his first walking race. After OR at 1500 and 3000m, Svoboda also added walking and perhaps he did not stand at the start for the last time. The finish was seen by 4 competitors, all in OR, one fighter was disqualified.
The junior competition was won by the Frydek competitor Eliška Říhová - 16:17, her training partner Eliška Kokořová finished second - 16:23. Aneta Dojčárová, Jiří Malysa's protégé from Pilsen, finished third, having significantly improved since last year's first starts to 16:36. The only junior started - Michaela Šubrtová from Holešov - 19:24.
Among the women, Nelly Bugárová from Pilsen, Lexa Malysa's protégé, rejoiced at the victory, in a new high-quality OR 15:23. Porub's Vivien Uvírová also demonstrated a performance shift - 16:14. The third Díková also performed OR - 17:28.
Then the men, juniors and teenagers started together. Adam Zajíček performed a great performance rarely seen in the Czech Republic. Karel Ketner's protege confirmed last year's performance progress and after a successful performance in Poděbrady and the ME U23 showed that Ketner's preparation is definitely going in the right direction and towards the 2024 season. The first kilometer in 4:02 was just the calm before the storm. 2 km in 8:02, 3000m in exactly 12 minutes, the fourth kilometer in 16:00. Then Adam braced himself for acceleration and was able to pull off a full 7 seconds. In Cili, the timer showed a wonderful performance of 19:53.42!!! Personal best improved by 40 sec. Bravo, bravo, bravo. In a solo race, after returning from a training camp in the Tatras, where he trained in the cold and snow.
In 2021, after many years, Vítek Hlaváč performed 5000m on Czech territory under 20 minutes. However, he had an escort for part of the race in the form of Lukáš Gdula. Adam completely single-handedly went 2 seconds better. Let's hope that he will build on his performance in the next starts and will have capable opponents in the form of Jarda Morávek and perhaps also Víti Hlaváč.
Another ward of Karel Ketner, junior Albert Kukla, appeared second in the cell. He, too, improved significantly in the hall, finishing 22:47 for OR and perhaps even he hasn't said the last word and will cut a lot of his time. Veteran Rosťa Kolář finished third in 23:28. Vojta Novák from Frýdek also broke the 24-minute mark - 23:52, and this newly minted junior can be expected to make further improvements at the MČR.
Nantes 21.1.2024:
On Saturday 20.1. the best French walker Gabriel Bordier stood at the start of the 5000m in Nantes. So far, the French competitors have recorded performances of over 20 minutes, but it is true that the biggest aces Bordier, Quinion, Campion have not yet appeared at the start.
Gabriel Bordier was his biggest rival in Nantes. He flew through the track in the best world performance of the year and above all improved the NR of France by more than 20 seconds. Time 18:25.52! The second in Cilia Pickart was almost 4 minutes behind. Bordier therefore awarded him a kilometer on the 5000m long track!
Junior Lisa Goulard won the women's 3000m walk with a time of 13:56.61.
The weekend was also marked by relay starts in the USA and Italy:
In the USA, in addition to relay races, there were also other walking disciplines. Mexican Brandon Segura dominated the 20 km with a performance of 1:23:16. Among the women, his compatriot Ilse Guerrero reigned with a performance of 1:30:37.
However, the main draw of the race day was above all the start of the relays. The Americans fielded 16 teams of various performance levels. America's top walker Nick Christie joins forces with Miranda Melville and
they ran for the win and a solid performance of 3:13:27, with which they hold 10th place in the world.
In Italy it was 21.1. in Bari - Modugno:
The race was dominated by the Chinese team consisting of Kaihua Wang - Jiayu Yang. With a great performance of 2:59:09, they were able to beat even the Italian champions, and with their time they are in second place behind the unrivaled performance of the Ecuadorians from Santiago de Chile, where they showed 4.11. time 2:56:49.
Second place was taken by the local Italians in Bari. No one less than the Olympic winners from Tokyo / Sapporo Massimo Stano and Antonella Palmisano decided to test the new Olympic discipline. They fell behind the Chinese by 21 seconds, with a time of 2:59:30 they are in third place in the world, and after the race they let it be known that this format of the race suits them very well. They will definitely go to Antalya and Paris to fight for one of the medals.
The world takes preparation for the Olympic relay very seriously, most teams want to try this format before qualifying in Antalya. We'll see what ours have to say. Eliška Martínková is already certain to participate in the European Championship in Rome, and to be sure of the Olympics, she only needs to finish solidly in Dudince or Poděbrady, where bonus points await in the MČR. Karel Ketner's wards are obviously also working hard at speed, and it would only be logical if Eliška joined forces with one of Karel Ketner's wards in Antalya. The race in April will show whether our walkers will lack relay experience, or whether they will stand at the start of the relay at all.
While the announcement of the relay caused mixed feelings among the competitors, the experience on the race track is more or less positive. The team competition gives a new charge to the individual discipline, which until now was walking.