The winners of the 55th "Olomoucká dvacítka" walking meeting in Smetanovy sady in Olomouc were Colombian Eider Arevalo and Maria Pérez from Guatemala. And the overall evaluation was clearly dominated by pedestrians from South America. The Czech Republic Championship was dominated by Vít Hlaváč and Tereza Ďurdiaková.

AREVALO OBJECTIVE

The men's 20-kilometer race was clearly run by South American pedestrians. Mexican Ricardo Ortiz and Peruvian César Augusto Rodriguez were the first to escape. However, he ended up without success. However, shortly before the tenth kilometer, the 2017 world champion Eider Arevalo took the lead, and that was the decisive moment. None of the opponents could react to it, and the Colombian began to escape them more and more. There was no doubt that he would win for the triumph, and so it happened when he passed the finish line victoriously in time 1:21:04. César Augusto Rodriguez lost more than a minute to him in the overall time of 1:22:11. Third was Ricardo Ortiz in 1:23:12. The dominance of South Americans was underlined by the fourth Colombian Esteban Soto (1:24:05) and the fifth Guatemalan José Oswaldo Calel (1:24:20).

The fight for the championship title was absolutely clear in the unpleasant weather conditions. At the last championship in the autumn in Poděbrady, Vít Hlaváč missed the premiere gold at this distance only thanks to a penalty. In Olomouc, after four silveres in a row, he finally became the national champion at 1:29:12, ending the reign of Lukáš Gdula, who has triumphed five times in a row since 2016. This time Gdula had to settle for silver in 1:35:14. In total, he won the tenth jubilee medal at the Czech Championships at the age of twenty. On the contrary, during his championship premiere at this distance, junior Adam Zajíček took the first place on the podium among adults, and he can enjoy a personal record of 1:35:57.

Pepa grade woman

Mary Luz Andia, a Peruvian woman, hit the blockbuster very soon after the start. The trio of Marya Pérez, Rafaela Ponciová (both Guatemala) and another representative of the walking school from Peru, Evelyn Ingaová, followed her slightly away. During the first half of the race, Tereza Ďurdiaková remained in the group on the edge of the top ten. Anežka Drahotová then went alone to the eleventh place with a loss of half a minute to her rival.

At the tenth kilometer, the situation was a bit different. Andia was overtaken by her pursuers and began to lose. In the battle for the championship title, the current eighth Ďurdiaková still had the upper hand. This duel also decided somewhere around the middle of the race when Drahotová resigned. Major things also happened at the helm. The leader Ponciová was disqualified, which opened up an opportunity for Pérez and Inga. Ďurdiaková continued to hold eighth position and went in the company of Colombian Yeseida Carrill. However, this did not last long, as disqualification was also affected here. 

In the final phase, Maria Pérezová had the most strength, who eventually won in 1:34:03. Peruvian Mary Luz Andia got ahead of her national teammate Evelyn Inga in the final kilometers and was second in 1:34:38. Inga took bronze 1:35:43. Thanks to disqualifications, Ďurdiaková also moved forward. In the final evaluation, only the fourth Slovak Mária Czaková got ahead of her (1:36:54). Ďurdiaková finished the race as the Czech champion in fifth place in the time of 1:38:00 and thus successfully defended the gold from the autumn championship in Poděbrady. Even unfavorable wind conditions did not prevent junior Eliška Martínková from setting a big personal record of 1:39:13, which earned her a silver medal and became the seventh fastest woman in the history of the Czech Championships. Bronze was won by her teammate from AC Turnov Jana Zikmundová for 1:48:26.

RESULTS

AREVALO DETAIL

CUT DETAIL