2nd annual Lusatian racewalking bronze pedestrian meeting, Žitava, October 28, 2023

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The second year of the Lusatian racewalking bronze pedestrian meeting took place on Saturday, October 28.10. in Zittau, Germany. Organizers from AC Rumburk and the German O-SEE Sports Zittau have symbolically combined their organizational efforts in the Sudetenland border for the national holiday. They prepared a high-quality 1 km long circuit with an elevation of 1 m.

Last year's result from the 35km distance, when the technically perfect French fighter Kévin Campion met the limit for the WC in his first start at this distance, attracted a whole range of competitors who fought not only for quality performances, but also points for the Olympic Games.

Žitava welcomed the competitors with 12 °C and cloudy skies. Fortunately, the occasional rain showers were only very short, so the competitors had more than good conditions to achieve solid performances.

The first start of the day was the joint start of the 1 / 2 / 3 / 5 km race. German competitors dominated the kilometer race. On the spot, Michal Benčík, the bearer of the famous walking name, registered for the 2 km from the kilometer distance and clearly dominated the race with a performance of 10:58. The girls from Frýdek-Místek followed him for the international podium.

In the top three, the clear favorite was Marek Rösler, a student from Mladá Boleslav, who showed another quality time - 14:17. Vejvančický (16:07), a competitor starting after illness from the organizing Rumburk, finished second, and Vaňková (16:39) from Frýdek finished third overall. The Frýdek group did very well overall and it is gratifying that they completed a long journey from Frýdek. The dedication of the coaches in all departments is admirable. Without their work and boundless dedication, youth sports would not exist!

5km was clearly dominated by Vojtěch Novák from Frýdek. He ran out for another great personal 23:14. He beat the second finisher, Apel Eckart, who was 43 years older, by more than 4 minutes. Eliška Kokořová from Frydek also finished third (28:23) and for her this is an OR at this distance.

The shorter races attracted about 50 male and female athletes, and many of the registered athletes did not show up.

After the completion of this race block, beautiful headbands with the logo of the race, which the organizers prepared for the competitors in place of the finisher's medals, began to whiten around the track. They were also received by those who failed the race and came to the finish area to collect them. A beautiful and practical memory of the race created by Jan Rein.

At 11 o'clock the joint race of 10 / 20 / 35 km was started. The top ten was clearly dominated by Jaromír Morávek, who traveled to the race from a training camp in the Tatras. The time of 42:41 is one of Jard's best in the top ten, and after Hodinovka in Prague, where he was 40 seconds slower, it shows that the training for the new season is going in the right direction. Albert Kukla, his colleague from Karel Ketner's training group, was second at the finish line, who, on the way from Tater, set a personal record of 46:08 in Zittau and thus confirmed a return to his spring form. So we can look forward to spring here too. Slovak pedestrian Rosenbaum finished third, 8 seconds back. The best woman of the race was Slovakian Kristína Zámečníková (51:44).

The numerous starting field for 20 km attracted walkers from all over the world. The biggest favorite of the race was the German pedestrian Karl Junghannß. However, he had a number of excellent opponents next to him. The group consisting of Junghannß, Seiler (GER), Ben Lima (POL) and Palma (MEX) set the pace at the 4-minute mark from the start. Although the pace slowed down in the second half, we still watched a wonderful fast race, which is not very common in our region. In the last kilometers, both Germans ran out of energy, on the contrary, the excellently prepared Slovak competitors were able to accelerate. In the end, Isaac Palma (MEX) managed to win for an excellent time. The time of 1:21:18 is his best performance in the last 7 years. He was 2016 seconds behind the OR from 24. Pole Ben Hlima crossed the finish line in second place in a great personal record (1:21:39) and the fantastic Slovakian competitor Dominik Černý finished third (1:21:42). He also improved the OR by more than 2 min. He performed what is always referred to as an ideal race, because he cut the so-called negative split and went one minute faster in the second ten than the first!

In the women's race, the French pedestrian Camille Moutard won completely convincingly. She was behind her OR from last year's Poděbrady with a performance of 1:31:36 by only 7 seconds, beaming with enthusiasm. Czech competitor Durďiaková walked in second place for the first few kilometers, and Vítek Hlaváč led the race as part of the training kilometers. However, Tereza did not settle for the race at all and ended her efforts around the eighth kilometer. However, Vítek stayed on the track and helped Slovak pedestrian Hana Burzalova to a huge personal record (1:33:53). She also demonstrated a significant acceleration in the second half of the course, when she finished second in under 46 minutes, i.e. below the limit of her OR for 10 km! Another Slovak, Mária Katarinka Czaková, took third place - 1:36:39, and she too was more than satisfied with the training test. The fourth place from Hodinovka in Prague (after which she got sick!) was repeated by the Frenchwoman Biré Heslouis Maële, when she finished her first ever 20 km race in 1:37:07. One competitor was disqualified.

And then the eyes of everyone present were fixed on the distance of 35 km. There was a question as to whether anyone would sign up for the race at all, if there is no going to the Olympics next year (in 2025, however, the World Championships will return to the program). Even so, several determined men and one woman stood at the start. After last year's great performance by the Frenchman Campion, it was clear that Žitava would have another French winner if he reached the finish line. Aurélien Quinion signed up for the race and demonstrated world-class performance. At 10 km, he was just under 42 minutes and continued to push the pace. He crossed the 20km finish line in 1:23:40 (T 4:11), i.e. one second ahead of Papamihail from Greece, who was eighth out of twenty! By then it was already clear that Kévin Campion's quality track record was shaking at its foundations. Aurélien continued to claim the music, the pace increased, and since there was no red target associated with his name on the draft board from the international judges, a new national record was set for the country of the Gallic Rooster. In great euphoria, the Frenchman flew the last kilometer in 3:59, and at the finish line, he emotionally rejoiced at improving his own national record by 3 minutes! The time of 2:25:57 is the fourth best European performance (including one Russian), the eighteenth historical world performance of all time, and above all, it is a huge satisfaction for the competitor after the disqualification in Budapest. In an emotional interview at the finish line, he thanked the organizers for their hospitality and attitude, for which he was rewarded with a world-class performance.

In the shadow of the great performance of the Frenchman, the German competitor Dohmann was in second place for a long time. However, he was eventually forced to leave the track, because the race simply did not suit him, and Cumali Arslan, a Turk living in Germany, finished second. In his first start at a distance of 35 km, he ran out of performance in 2:49:06. Just like last year, Martin Nedvídek from Rumburg took third place in a time of 2:56:13, who improved his spring performance in Dudinc by 2 minutes and was 40 seconds behind last year's OR from Žitava. Martin is one of the organizers of the Czech-German race and so hats off to his performance. The only woman at the start, Germany's Bianca Schenker, improved her own personal best from last year by more than 16 minutes, finishing in 3:26:44. Ms. Bianca belongs to the category of W49 racers!

The beautiful Czech-German race is behind us, it was full of excellent performances, and even though the laudatory comments are coming from all sides (mainly from abroad), the organizers are already putting their heads together on how to prepare the next year even better.