The racing season in the world started in full swing, on Saturday 25.3. the next edition of the Dudinská 50 took place, this race included 7 championship competitions, including the MČR in the 35 km walk.

The men's 35km race started at 8:30 in the morning and the sun slowly began to lean on the competitors.

Immediately after the start, the Canadian Evan Dunfee set off to the front of the race, who wanted his name on the winner's column and by starting in Dudince, he wanted to fulfill his dream of starting at this traditional meeting. Unfortunately, the race did not go well for him at all and in the end he had to bow down to the art of the other three rivals. Doctor from Mexico won in a world time of 2:26:37, nearly a minute ahead of second place Bonfire Caia from Brazil. The third Chinese raced past a struggling Dunfee 2km from the finish line to claim bronze in 2:29:00. However, even the fourth Dunfee, despite a race that did not suit him at all, came in under the sharp limit for the WC in Budapest!

The Czech competitors competed in their championship and probably no one doubted the winner. The only question was whether Vít Hlaváč (AC Teplo Kladno, tr. Větrovcová), who prepared for the season in Livigno, Cyprus and South Africa, can build on the results from last season. The race broke up together with the Slovakian Morvay, who, however, started to move away from him after 17km, and Víťa was already fighting more with himself. Although he won the championship title with ease, he ended up in 27th place overall, and he can hardly be satisfied with his performance. The performance of 2:43:43 is more than 2 minutes worse than last year's performance from Dudinci, what's worse, the performance is even worse than last year's 2:43:14 from the hellish World Cup of Walking Teams in Muscat, where the competitors fought not only with hot weather, but also extremely hilly track. Vítek is currently 38th in the world rankings, and when the points for Dudinc are counted, we can probably expect another drop down. The confirmed time performance for the WC when qualifying via ranking is 2:36:00. The weak consolation for the unconvincing performance can only be the fact that the limit for the EC in Poděbrady has been met.

However, behind Vítek, things were happening in the fight for more medals. The second of our Olympians, Lukáš Gdula, started after many years without pain or taping. However, the race didn't suit him at all either, he suffered through the kilometers and so the ageless literally raced through him for 17km Martin Nedvídek (AC Rumburk). Lukáš, who had a lead of more than 2 minutes during the race, was unable to react to Martin and his loss quickly increased to more than a minute. Around 22km he still tried to fight, quickly closing the gap to a difference of only 28 seconds, but that was all. Martin Nedvídek then easily defended his silver medal (38th in total) and with a performance of 2:58:01, he cannot be dissatisfied at the age of 48. A combative, concentrated performance rightly deserves the highest rating. Although he was more than 2 minutes behind OR from Žitava, this is nothing that should bother him after the problems with traveling the day before the race, when he arrived at the race site just before midnight.

The mentioned man then ran out for bronze Lukáš Gdula (Hvězda Pardubice, tr. Čermáková) at 3:02:59. Everyone would certainly wish Lukáš a good result if he had not been troubled by health problems for a long time, but this was really not his day. He then won the potato medal Alexandr Malysa (VSK University of Brno, tr. Malysa, who in the second half of the race decided to help the Czech women fighting for 3rd-5th place in the MCR and thus managed a time of 3:08:06. He definitely surprised positively by finishing the race.

The women's XNUMX brought a fantastic spectacle to the Peruvian world champion. Kimberly Garcia Leon she came to Dudinci perfectly prepared and outclassed her rivals not only with perfect style, but also with a performance that is not seen every day. A new world record, a time of 2:37:44, is how the world champion races. Even the fantastic Liu Hong from China lost more than 2 minutes to her!!!

The women's championship race also had a clear favorite. Tereza Ďurdiaková (USK Prague, tr. Piták)  she came to Dudinci directly from the training camp in Kenya and announced in advance that she would concentrate on Poděbrady. Tereza struggled from the first meters of the race, her style was refined and cumbersome. Although she easily won the championship title, her time of 3:13:53 is far behind even the qualifying performance for the European Championship in Poděbrady!

Far behind Teresa, the fight for another medal was taking place. From the beginning she went to the silver position Klára Hlaváčová (AC Teplo Kladno, tr. Čermáková). At 16 km, she already gave her rivals more than one kilometer, but it was clear how hard it was for her. Rivals Pohlová - Bakliková - Bugárová, however, continued to keep their pace, gradually accelerated and began to move away from the struggling Kláře on the kilometer circuit. After 22 kilometers, Michaela Bakliková, who was already struggling at that moment, had to withdraw from the race, as she stepped into an unmarked hole in the asphalt and thus renewed her ankle injury. Štěpánka Pohlová Kučerová (tr. Hlavenka, TJ Sokol Hr. Králové) she walked side by side with Nelly Bugárová (AK Škoda Plzeň, tr. Malysa) and the girls attacked Klára Hlaváčová's position hard. Starting the attack a kilometer earlier, the medals were distributed differently. Klára Hlaváčová defended silver by 36 seconds ahead of Pohlová - Kučerová, Bugárová lost only 4 seconds to bronze.

In addition to the main 35km race, other races were also held in Dudince. Descendants of famous fathers (Korzeniowsky, O'Callaghan) presented themselves in children's competitions.

He finished 10th in the 10km junior race Roman Hanyk (AC Turnov, tr. Čermáková), who had to stand in the penalty zone in the last kilometer. Unfortunately, the resulting time of 50:08 will not advance him to the European Championship in Poděbrady. However, it should be noted that there was a significant improvement in the competitor's technical performance, but the problems with the knees still persist when tired.

Eighth in the junior women's race Ema Klimentová (AK Šternberk, tr. Sadil/Čermáková) she ran her first junior top ten and a quality time of 50:43 secured her a representative jersey for the EC in Poděbrady. The indoor champion kept pace with her for the first 5 km Alžběta Franklová (school Čermáková, SK Jeseniova), but then she slowed down, but she too managed a solid OR in 12th place and with a time of 51:59 she broke the limit for Poděbrady by one second. Our other representatives in the competition were Katka Nedvídková (AC Rumburk) 59:47, Pittnerová Tereza (SK Vrchlabí Smola Konstrukce) 1:02:29. Anna Horáková AC Rumburk) did not finish the race.

We had 20 representatives in the men's 3km race. Last year's juniors presented themselves for the first time in the men's category and got a taste of what the world 20km walk looks like. Both were eager to break the ME 22 limit (1:28:00), which would mean a significant improvement in their OR. Out of the pair of "juniors", he did better in the end Adam Zajíček (tr. Ketner, Poruba Athletics), when he met the limit for Poděbrady with a time of 1:29:03 and improved OR by almost 7 minutes. Jaromír Morávek (tr. Ketner, AK ŠKoda Plzeň) with a time of 1:30:40, he also improved by almost 8 minutes, but was 40 seconds behind the limit for Poděbrady. However, both men's first sharp XNUMXs, both have shown that their transformation into XNUMXs is going in the right direction and can be expected to continue to improve. One can only hope that Morávek will also get a chance to start at the EC in Poděbrady and try to improve further on the fast track. It will be very difficult on the difficult Olomouc track. The third in the party was already a veteran by age Rostislav Kolář (SK Hranice). He was not idle during the winter either, and his late coach Brandejský would surely be happy that Rosťa improved his OR again after the race in Žitav, by 1:40 to 1:36:09. Bravo.

In the women's race, the petite Mexican González put in a great performance of 1:28:09, showing that it was possible to go fast even in a windy race. Eliška Martínková (USK Prague, tr. Čermáková) after returning from a training stay in Colombia, she was eager to meet the limit for ME 23, which was rather less of a formality for the seventh of the adult ME. She met the nomination criteria for ME 22 with ease, the time of 1:35:24 was enough for fourth place overall. Eliška also met the nomination requirements for the WC in Poděbrady, but she is far from the confirmation performance of ČAS for the WC in Budapest (1:32:00). Her performance was not the freshest either, and she will probably need more time to acclimatize after returning from the high altitude.

What did the Dudin race tell us about the state of Czech walking? The young competitors were pleased with their further gradual improvement. However, the mainstays of the national team will find it difficult to build on last year's successful year. The strategy of our coaches and competitors is surprising. The world came to Dudinci perfectly prepared. At times, the windy race did not prevent a number of pedestrians from performing at their best. The world is fighting for limits for the WC and the Olympics. There are also ranking points in the game. At no other meeting do competitors get so many bonus points. The gold meeting is the highest rated, athletes from all over the world want to show their best performance at the gold meeting. Our national team has a completely different strategy. Untuned performance, lack of ambition for maximum performance, lack of interest in gaining points in the rankings for quality times. If Podebrady were on the traditional April date, it would be understandable, even if foreign athletes are able to complete several high-quality races in a row. But Podebrady isn't until 21.5. The race in Dudince was the logical highlight of the first part of the season, but our mainstays certainly did not start in top form. The strategy of the Czech representative walk is thus more than mysterious.

The report directly from the site of the race was written by: Lucie Nekulová.