This way of terming seems rather unfortunate to me.

All lovers of sport walking are surely already diligently training for the new competitive year 2023 and have been impatiently looking at the schedule of league rounds for the upcoming season.

On 23.12.22, the first part of the competition season was published, and walking enthusiasts thought that their glasses had fogged up. Anyone who doesn't wear glasses must have gotten the impression that they need to see an eye doctor. Otherwise, it is impossible to explain looking at the term sheet in the first half of the year.

Almost the entire racing season has shrunk to a span of less than 30 days, when the competitors will be able to compete in two championship competitions and two rounds of the league. This can be an advantage for competitors who like to collect points for their teams and will therefore have enough free time for the rest of the year to honestly train running/jumps or throws and thus be able to support their friends from the team directly in the stadium.

MČR in a 35km walk, March 25 - DUDINCE:

Slovak Dudinka as is traditionally the case, they will welcome pedestrians from all over the world and the Czechs will fight for domestic titles here. Last year, the certificate of the multi-year circuit expired, but it began to be insufficient in capacity and above all it would deserve a new surface, as it would correspond to the WA gold race. The Slovaks announced an effort to find a new circuit, 25.3. we will see if they recertify the old circuit or if they were successful in their search. The growing number of competitors on the 35km course would certainly welcome a change for the better. 

The participant limits were listed as follows:

Competition

Men

Women

20km / 20000m walk

1:55:00 / 1:55:00.00

2:05:00 / 2:05:00.00

35km / 35000m walk

3:30:00 / 3:30:00.00

3:50:00 / 3:50:00.00

A total of 7 men met the limits last year - Hlaváč, Gdula, Morávek, Zajíček, Nedvídek, R. Kolář and Josef Smola.

Among the women, 6 women broke the participation limits on some of the tracks - Martínková, Ďurdiaková, Pohlová Kučerová, Zikmundová, Bakliková and Borovičková.

LEAGUE - 1st round, 2nd April - RUMBURK and HOLEŠOV:

A week later, that is 2.4. the first league round will take place. The race will be held on tracks with a length of 5000 and 10 m above sea level Rumburk and Holešov.

Holešov: 10000 m walk for the 1st round of the I. League for men and women, sk. C

                 5000 m walk for the 1st round II. men's and women's leagues, sk. D, E

Rumburk: 10000 m walk for the 1st round of the I. League for men and women, sk. A, B

                  5000 m walk for the 1st round II. men's and women's leagues, sk. A, B, C

With adequate training for the marathon distance, it is not an exception when a competitor subsequently creates an OR in a run of 5 or 10 km. Although the time length corresponds to a walking race, the ideal difference between the races is 14 days. In the first week, the athlete's body is more broken. In many ways, walking is kinder to the body, on the other hand, the performance takes longer and we strain more muscles when walking. Potential participants of both races can most likely forget about passenger cars. However, the date of the I. league race makes sense given the race before the next peak of the season. It will arrive 2 weeks later.

MČR in a 20km walk, April 15 - OLOMOUC:

In the traditional bronze bronze race of WA v Olomouc, with 15.4. will hold not only the MČR in walking for 20 km, but also the XNUMXst round of the extra league.

The participant limits for participation in the championship race have been set more reasonably for this year, and the fulfilled limit from the 10 km track or 10m. Considering the length of the tracks on which the Czech Republic starts within the framework of league competitions, the recognition of the limit even from a distance of 000 km is more than justified.

Competition

Men

Women

10 km/10000 m walk

50:45/50:45.00

56:50/56:50.00

20 km/20000 m walk

1:55:00/1:55:00.00

2:05:00/2:05:00.00

35 km/ 35000 m walk

3:30:00/3:30:00.00

3:50:00/3:50:00.00

For the men's competition in the past year, a total of 13 men met one of the limits - Hlaváč, Gdula, Morávek, Zajíček, Nedvídek, R. Kolář, Smola, Hanyk, Hurdálek, Lapka, T.Gdula, Kukla and Hlavenka.

In the women's competition, a total of 10 competitors can appear in the championship race: Martínková, Ďurdiaková, Pohlová Kučerová, Franklová, Hlaváčová, Zikmundová, Bakliková, Borovičková, Nedvídková. Klimementová, a junior, performed better than the qualifying limit during the race in Milovice, but this performance does not meet the nomination criteria for known reasons.

LEAGUE - 2nd round, April 22 - PRAGUE (Satalice or elsewhere???!!)

Another league race will take place one week after the MČR in the 20km walk in Prague. 22.4. will compete at a distance of 10 km in the second round of the extra league, men's and women's I. and II. leagues.

CONCLUSION:

 Every coach with at least a basic knowledge probably suspects that a similarly structured term, when competing over endurance distances, does not add much to personal records. A timetable built in this way does not record the best performances even for our representatives, let alone for the so-called hobby athletes and performance walkers who go to work and have a family to train. I once heard from Tomáš Janků, then as head of the union, how divisions and masses of athletes form the basis from which representatives can emerge. During the creation of this term sheet, pedestrians outside the national team were the last ones anyone would be interested in. 

It is a question for whom the schedule was built in this way, it can be assumed that the representatives will use the subsequent time for preparation and will thus attack the medal positions at the European Championships in Poděbrady. Then cramming the whole season into one month would make some sense, but realistically, that's hardly something you can expect. 

However, what is completely mind-boggling is the fact that the potential organizer of the race in Prague did not even know about the organization of the league round. If it was an agreement with the organizers, who do not have another possible date, it would again be possible to understand the condensing of the races within one month, but here the organizer did not even know about the organization of the race. Hopefully, on their own initiative, they will come to an agreement with the technical delegate of walking, K. Čermáková, and we will not witness the second year of the Znojem clockwork...

For pedestrians, we can only hope that the test race before the EC in Poděbrady will have an unlimited capacity and that anyone who shows interest will be able to start, otherwise the season will end before it properly started and those interested will not be able to wait for other races until August. at the MČR youth and championship competitions in the masters category.

In conclusion, only one thing can be said. This way of the league schedule seems rather unfortunate to me.

DSC 7375 54. Olomoucka 20 1.8.2020