Eliška Martínková is undoubtedly the biggest star of the MČR among those registered. On the contrary, Tereza Ďurdiaková skips the race. That's why Eliška will fight only one opponent and that will be the timer! Will the Czech officials finally wake up from their hibernation and apply the penalty zone, which has been a standard in the world for many years, during this MČR?

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On the coming weekend, Sunday 11.2. will hold the Czech Republic Walking Championship. As has been the custom for many years, the walkers will share the hall of the Prague Olympus with the all-around athletes.

TD allowed 66 male and female athletes to compete. It can be expected that we will not actually see all the competitors in the hall in the end, because viral diseases are rampant in many regions.

The female students will be the first to start their race at 10:15. Here, 12 girls passed the technical delegate selection. The medals will most likely be shared between Vaňková and Zvonková from Frýdek, whose dominance of the race can be disrupted by Kadaň's Noemi Maják.

Even the teenager should be 12 at the start. Traditional medal contenders from Frýdek-Místek Říhová and Kokořová will fight for a medal with coach Malysa Dojčárová, who is significantly improving from Pilsen. Last year in the hall, she still walked at the limit of 19 minutes, but her significant performance shift with a time of 16:36 ranks her among the candidates for a medal. We'll see if Bartoňová, another girl from Frýdeč, who attacked the 16-minute mark last year, but hasn't gotten below 17 minutes this year, will speak to the fight.

Shortly after 11 a.m., 9 students will stand on the starting line. Last year's medalists moved to the juniors, and Arnošt Slaměník from Duchc is the biggest favorite to win the title. About 15 seconds behind are Myška from Frýdek and Herman from Břeclav with their best performances. For the competitors, it would be a great success to get closer to the 16 min mark.

The highly anticipated joint women's and junior women's race will start at 11:30 a.m. Junior girls will start 4.

The clear favorite is Ema Klimentová, who has already performed sub 14 and has a top ten finish in Antalya, Turkey. Frankl's silver position should also be a clear matter. Krinwaldová and Kyselicová will fight for bronze. Kyselicová improved to 16:33 this year, Krinwaldová has not yet competed indoors, last year she was bronze with a performance of 16:06.

However, what fans of walking look forward to almost the most on race day is the start of the women's race. Eliška Martínková is registered there (on the photo from Antalya with starting number 20), who attacked the Czech record of Dana Vavřačová at the New Year's Hall and we will all be in curious anticipation of what form Martínková will be in at the start of the race. She has a great performance in Antalya and her start will definitely be the highlight of Sunday's race.  Along with Eliška, 6 other women will take part in the race, but they will fight far behind the Czech star. One of the medal candidates is Štěpánka Pohlová-Kučerová, but Petříková and Bugárová from Pilsen are improving this year. The name of another representative, Tereza Ďurdiaková, is missing from the start list. Unlike Eliška, the Turkish race did not go well and we will not see her at the championship race.

Adults and juniors will also run the joint race. 5000m awaits these competitors. Among the 6 registered teenagers, Matěj Piták is missing from those included in the representative selections. Last year's students Mochal - Rösler - Plecháček will fight for the medals. The biggest favorite to win the title is the Liberec ward tr. Paris Dan Mochal.

Albert Kukla should dominate the junior race (5). He is the only one this year to have clocked under 23 minutes. From his point of view, it is a bit of a shame that the juniors will not enter the competition with the men, because Kukla could go out with one of our veteran competitors. His biggest rival should be last year's teenager Vojtěch Novák from Frýdek. He improved to 23:52 this year and will surely want to improve this time. The other juniors already have significantly slower performances and will rather compete with the junior medalists. Peroutek showed great improvement in the triple and is most likely the biggest candidate for bronze.

If the fans are excited about Eliška Martínková's performance in the triple, they probably have even greater expectations for the men's race. We all know what to expect from Martínková (and the author of the text is really looking forward to her performance). For men, the situation is different and not only a beautiful fight for medals is expected, but also performances of sub 20 min. 11 walkers signed up. Defending champion Vít Hlaváč will not be missing at the start. In the past season, he labored with hamstring problems, MS did not affect him and he finished the injury. He will come to the race straight from the training camp in Melago, Italy, and he will certainly not be in an easy position. Last year's silver medalist Adam Zajíček has improved by 40 seconds this year and will go to the start encouraged by a quality solo performance from Ostrava, where he performed 2 seconds better than Hlaváč's OR (19:55) from 2021. Last year's fastest Czech 20 km walker will also be at the start Jaromír Morávek (whom Zajíček stepped on the heels of). Although he was ill in preparation and we will see in what form he will start, but there is still something to look forward to. To the delight of the fans, Lukáš Gdula will also be present at the start. This year, after many years, he dropped out of the national team selection, but after a not very successful season, he obviously didn't resent it, he trained with Hlaváč in Cyprus and the Dolomites, and we'll see if he won't be able to grab one of the medals at the expense of the emerging youth. If there were referees in the race, then the pair Kolář - Nedvídek could wait for the hesitation of one of the favorites.

The propositions do not state that the zone penalty rule should not be applied. If a PZ was created (I wish it would, it's been a standard in the world for many years) and someone from the fastest four had to use it, then the theoretical 30 sec penalty could add another element of excitement to an already tense race.

In conclusion, it is still necessary to emphasize the limitations to which Olymp Praha has approached. Most of the competitors will have to find parking nearby, so at least for Prague athletes it will be better to arrive by public transport.

We will pass beautiful races to all pedestrians and we are very much looking forward to your performances. For those who cannot make it to the hall, a stream will be available on the ČAS Facebook page.