M35 Linke's world record at 3.000m - 10:44.00 (WR) in Erfurt, great Czaková at 5.000m - 21:28.80 (PB) and excellent Úradník - 19:32.30 (PB) in Bratislava and finally Olympic winner Palmisanová at 10km - 44 :02 in Guadix, Spain.
Slovak neighbors currently have 3 pedestrians who are able to walk in less than 20 minutes, and hopefully we will be able to say the same after the upcoming MČR!!!
Even the past weekend brought, from a pedestrian's perspective, a whole series of interesting and fantastic performances. There are!!!
ERFURT - international meeting, 2.2.2024:
German pedestrians detonated the resulting bomb on Friday evening. At the traditional international meeting of the bronze level in Erfurt, the German walking elite presented themselves in the 3000 m race.
The Germans took the race as a test after returning from training in South Africa and performed really well.
German record holder Christopher Linke set the pace from the start. This competitor, born in 1988, entered the M35 category last year and also set a world record for this age category of 11:07 in Erfurt. The Olympic Games are a huge motivation for all athletes, and this can be seen in the performances already in the indoor season. Linke flew through the track in a huge personal record, a meeting record, but above all he again improved the world best performance of M35 - 10:44.00. However, he still lacks Tom Bosworth's (UK) absolute world record of 10:30.28. However, Karl Junghannß is also excellently prepared, he breathed on Linke's back and at the finish line he too could rejoice at a performance under 11 minutes in a time of 10:48.79. Olympic medalist Jonathan Hilbert finished third in 11:27.98, who is slowly returning to the track after a series of injuries and mental burnout. A very interesting performance was performed by the youth European champion Frederic Weigel. The son of a famous father and trainer crossed the finish line in 11:59.46 in fifth place.
Slovak Championship, Bratislava, February 3.2.2024, XNUMX:
On Saturday, the Slovak national championship took place in the Elán sports hall in Bratislava.
Among the teenagers, 16 girls started and all the medalists broke the 15-minute mark. The winner was Petra Kusá, who already came very close to the 14-minute mark - 14:09.65, in a personal record.
The junior race was clearly dominated by Lukáš Rosenbaum, who very narrowly missed the mark of 13 min - 13:03.88. Even the second finisher, Mažgút, was able to get under 14 minutes - 13:40.46.
For the women's competition, the Slovak officials announced an unconventional 5m. We have repeatedly appreciated here how extremely well-thought-out and sophisticated the Slovak coaches are in the fight for (not only) Olympic points in the world rankings. From this point of view, the inclusion of a distance of 000 m was hardly surprising. The five is counted in the scored distances for a distance of 5000 km. Therefore, those who strive for points for the European Championship or the Olympic Games have a chance to win valuable plus points for the championship competition over a shorter distance. The race must be registered in the WA calendar and supervised by at least 20 judges of international level.
The juniors also joined the women at the start. Right from the start, coach Matej Spišiak's mentee Mária Katarinka Czaková set the pace of the race. She is currently ranked 38 (there are 48 female walkers traveling to the Olympics) and a quality performance could move her to a more secure qualifying position. And the excellently prepared Czaková performed it. She reached the finish line in a time well below the planned performance and thanks to the result of 21:28.80 she can enjoy not only the title, but above all a shift in the ranking.
Hana Burzalová also came far behind Czaková in a quality time, who became the domestic number one during Czaková's maternity break and last year, after returning from training in Australia, she showed significant performance progress. The time 22:37.71 definitely belongs to the quality ones. Klauda Žďárská took third place after last year's not-quite-successful season with a performance of 10 seconds under 23 minutes.
A high-quality performance and medals will surely be an encouragement for her for the next season.
An attack on ranking points was also expected among the men. In the absence of the best Slovak pedestrian Dominko Černý, Miroslav Úradník clearly won the title. He is moving just behind the advancing group at the OH and needed a performance of around 19:15.00 to advance. Although this did not come true for him, he still set a personal record and 19:32.30 is definitely a performance that we would like for our pedestrians as well. In the shadow of Úradník's performance, Michal Morvay also managed an excellent time under the magical 20-minute mark. He can definitely be satisfied with his personal performance of 19:54.13.
Slovak neighbors currently have 3 pedestrians who are able to walk in less than 20 minutes, and hopefully we will be able to say the same about us after the upcoming MČR.
GUADIX - bronze meeting Pedestrian Tour - 4.2.2024
In Guadix, Spain, the traditional bronze meeting of the Pedestrian Tour took place on Sunday. In this area at this time the weather is suitable and even the best pedestrians choose the races for the performance test.
However, the races are primarily a competition of a huge number of child walkers. Anyone who has seen videos of dozens of children rushing down the track at short distances knows exactly why Spain is a walking superpower.
The women's 10 km race was dominated by the Italian Olympic champion Antonella Palmisano - 44:02. She recently tried a walking relay.
Her compatriot Francesco Fortunato won the men's 10 km competition - 40:18. He too has completed the relay test in Italy and the Italians will definitely be the ones who will strive for 2 pedestrian teams at the start of the OH competition.