In beautiful weather, an open veterans' championship took place in Linz, Austria. The new stadium, completed in 2019, offered not only quality surface and equipment of the sectors, but also modern facilities and a friendly atmosphere of the organizers and participants.

A total of 15 men and 17 women, mostly domestic, took part in walking in the usual five-year categories, diversifying the pedestrians from Poland, Germany and Canada, and in men from the Czech Republic and Hungary.

The walking judges, despite the poor performance of the Austrian pedestrians, made very qualified decisions, there were both young and experienced judges and they did not tolerate too much bent knees even in the oldest categories.

I tried to prepare for this race in the conditions around the ponds near České Budějovice and on holiday in Podkrkonoší, where you could only go uphill and back, and I was really looking forward to it, despite the necessary anti-civic measures. Already from the domestic championship of the Czech Republic in Třebíč, (10km 50:45), despite the technically difficult track in each round over two bridges, I felt that it was in my power to go relatively fast.

After the start, Roman BRZEZOWSKY (1964) took the lead and set a relatively sharp pace, so he was at the first km in 4:38. I held him for a few seconds and I was very happy to have a great puller. At about 1600m it was becoming clear that he would not keep up the pace, so I replaced him with the fact that we will take turns after two laps. Unfortunately, this did not happen and there was no choice but to go against time. It was getting quite warm, no wind, there was no refreshment station and the new track was quite soft, something very different from the rebound than I was used to on the road. From the second km I kept a regular pace of about 4:50 - 4:53 per km and reached the finish line well, even though the last 400m came to me for a really long time.

I was at the finish line in 24:12:00, Roman BRZEZOWSKY in 24: 24,68 min and Franz KROPIK finished in third place in 27: 32,43 min, which is also the overall ranking of this successful race.

In women, Anna Maria JERNEJ won overall in 33: 25,65 min.

These well-organized races are open not only to the veteran competition but also to younger categories, and there is nothing to prevent the Czech participation from being repeated in even greater numbers.

The results are available at:

Austrian Championships MastersFreigegeben

 25.09.2021/26.09.2021/4020 - XNUMX/XNUMX/XNUMX XNUMX Linz, OÖ Oberbank Arena Leichtathletikzentrum ÖLV

https://oelv.athmin.at/results.aspx?round=162822&int=&returnTo=L2V2ZW50LWRldGFpbHMuYXNweD9ldmVudD0yMTcyOSZpbnQ9JnJldHVyblRvPUwyVjJaVzUwY3k1aGMzQjQ=

https://oelv.athmin.at/event-details.aspx?event=21729&int=&returnTo=L2V2ZW50cy5hc3B4

Mila Lapka