Kimberly García and Perseus Karlström dominated the gold meeting of the Poděbrady Walking world circuit in track records. Czech titles at 20 km were defended by Vít Hlaváč and Eliška Martínková. Ema Klimentová dominated the junior top ten, Albert Kukla finished third.

RESULTS

HONZA NEKULA PHOTO GALLERY

MIRIAM STEWART PHOTO GALLERY:

PHOTO GALLERY - 20km MEN - PART 1

PHOTO GALLERY - 20km MEN - PART 2

PHOTO GALLERY - 20km WOMEN

PHOTO GALLERY - 10km MEN U20, WOMEN U20

PHOTO GALLERY - 3km, 5km MASTERS, U16

PHOTO GALLERY - 5km + 20km MASTERS

The spa colonnade hosted on Saturday 6.4. already the 92nd year of the famous Poděbrady walking meeting. The year was a record in many ways. In the Olympic year, the spa circuit attracted a record number of top walkers, unfortunately the weather was also record breaking. Burning Sun and the 26thº, this is definitely not normal April weather.

The race circuit was again excellently prepared from Friday by the team around Jan Rein, who is always faithfully accompanied by his wife Míla. Thank you for your dedicated work.

The race day started an hour before noon with a 3 km start. After a great fight, the Slovakian pedestrian Dominika Pernická (14:35) crossed the finish line victoriously, who managed to shake off the still newbie among pedestrians, the skilled runner and protégé of Karel Ketner Hynk Svoboda, in the last 500 m. OR from Dudincé improved by 2 seconds to 14:39. A talented walker from Duchcov Slaměník appeared at the finish line in third place, also in an improved OR - 15:43. The third student was Miroslav Myška (16:14), who finished with Noemi Maják from Kadaň. She was second in the female class and she is also improving race after race - 16:14 and will probably soon break the 16 minute mark. The third pupil was Viktorie Vaňková, and for her the Poděbrady race was a sign of the best personal performance - 16:33.

Among the young walkers, the performance of Kateřina Kratochvílová, a young competitor from AC Rumburk, who did not hesitate after her race and joined the work at the refreshment station and resolutely refilled water for adult walkers should be highlighted. Bravo. The students showed an overall solidly mastered technique and nice performances.

After them, the male and female pedestrians prepared for their race on the 5 km course. In the mixed race of U16 and Masters athletes, we saw a number of excellent performances. Slovak pedestrian Lukáš Rosenbaum was the clear winner of U16 - 21:57. Dan Mochal from Liberec reached the finish line in second place, but the great OR did not register. A justified disqualification came very quickly and Dan will have to wait for the first time under 23 minutes. It must be said that the competitor had a whole series of warnings from 5 judges and collected 3 reds in the last lap. It is a pity for him that the penalty zone was not applied in the junior race. It was prepared and it is hard to understand that it is not applied to a youth race, when this rule was introduced in the beginning precisely for the sake of youth. If Mochal had received a 30 sec penalty, he would have still made it to OR and finished fifth in the race, thereby registering a DQ. The other Czech juniors performed excellently, of which the trio Plecháček - 23:59, Rösler - 24:22 and Vejvančický - 24:57 should be singled out. All demonstrated OR. The biggest compliment goes to Vejvančický, who worked all Friday on preparing the circuit and was already in front of the Libeňský hotel at 7:30 on Saturday and willingly helped with everything that was needed. After the race, he, like Kratochvílová, went to the refreshment room and helped the Rein couple. Thank you!

The winner of the veteran race was the competitor from Hong Kong Chun Hung Tse - 24:38. The most experienced competitors at the start were the German Bonness and the indomitable Czech veteran Standa Marek, both born in 1942!!!

The fastest teenager was Slovenka Zámečníková, among masters athletes Ivana Vranková from Opava took the silver step.

At 12:50, the women started the main 20 km race. Tereza Ďurdiaková was absent at the start, she excused herself for health reasons, and the participation of the 9th from the World Championships in Budapest to the Olympic Games in Paris is not even theoretical at the moment.

Hark weather was not a problem for the favorites, the main favorite Kimberly Gacia Leon from Peru performed a wonderful performance, who set a new meeting record - 1:27:09 at her first start in Poděbrady. In the second half of the race, she was able to overtake the Italian Olympic champion Palmissano and Glenda Morejón. The athlete from Ecuador showed great fighting spirit, losing 18 seconds to the Italian at 3 km, but then she started and went for the silver in 1:27:21. This time, the Italian hung the bronze medal around her neck in 1:27:27. No less than 9 female competitors performed under 1:30:00 and another 2 were very close to breaking this mark. Immediately 16 female competitors withdrew from the race, the conditions were not the easiest.

Everyone had high expectations from the start of Eliška Martínková. Our number one didn't have her day and from the first kilometers she went just under 4:40/km behind expectations. She gradually slowed down considerably,

she crossed the finish line very disappointed in a below-average performance of 1:40:25. The effort to finish the race can be appreciated, many female competitors preferred to wrap up the race when things did not go well. The fact that Eliščina's name shines for some time, even if it is very weak for her level, serves to Eliška's credit on her home track. If the saying "once you're down, once you're up" applies, then let's hope that in 14 days in Antalya, Eliška will have a better day and will successfully fight to participate in the relay race in Paris.

Štěpánka Pohlová Kučerová received the national team jersey. Unfortunately, this gesture should have come earlier, at a time when Štěpánka was at her peak performance. Štěpánka, just like Eliška, definitely didn't have her day, but she too fought as hard as she could and bravely finished the race in 1:55:26. The Pilsen couple Bakliková - Bugárová took advantage of her bad day. Both girls walked side by side with Štěpánka for 12 km and then started to move away from Štěpánka. Bakliková overtook Bugárová in the last kilometer and won the championship silver medal in the MČR - 1:52:55. Bronze Bugárová, like her colleague, managed not only to win a medal, but also a great OR - 1:53:00. Lenka Borovičková, a veteran competitor and medalist from the recent ME Masters in Toruń, crossed the finish line in 63rd place - 2:07:56.

Although the women's race was a disappointment for the Czech colors, great things happened in the men's race.

We all know that Persy Karlström won another victory. The new track record of 1:18:22 seemed extremely easy in his delivery and, as his mum said, it was a test to see how he was doing after the winter. The best is yet to come. In his first participation, the Olympic medalist in his fifties, Canadian Evan Dunfee, who did not hide his enthusiasm for the beauty of the Poděbrady circuit and the great organization, ran out for silver. Brazil's Caio Bonfim won bronze. Even the fourth Frenchman Bordier broke the elite barrier of 1:20:00.

Czech fans expected a lot. For men, it was a fight for nomination to Antalya. The best from Poděbrady will get the right to fight for Olympic participation in the relay with Eliška Martínková. The championship title was also at stake, as well as a move up the rankings for the EC in Rome. Vít Hlaváč recorded a time of 1:25:50 this year, which was the OR for 20 km after years, and we were waiting to see what the young Moravians and Zajíček would show. They wanted a time around 1:24:30, which was not here for a long time, Vítek aimed for a sub 1:24:00. From the first kilometers of the race, Vítek fired up and showed how much the growing domestic competition is a huge motivation for him. Let's add the OH and it was set for an excellent performance. In the middle of the track, he had a lead of almost a minute on the duo Morávek - Zajíček, moreover in OR 41:17,1! Vítek fought and, at the age of 27, improved his OR from this year by more than 2 minutes at a great 1:23:38, despite the extremely difficult last kilometer. Such performance has not been here for over 20 years!!! Vítek rightly won the title and the opportunity to start with Eliška in the relay in Antalya. It must be said that Vítek is the best choice among our men. He is technically very confident, which can be very important in a tight fight, in addition, he is a natural long-distance skier, he has experience from a 35 km course, so he will probably be able to handle two sections of approx. 12 + 10 km better than both young men. His speed improvement is then a promise for 2025, when he returns to the WC 35 km.

Even the only 21-year-old pedestrians Moravek and Zajíček do not have to be sad. Even though they expected more and the hot day didn't suit them, they both gave an excellent performance. They went side by side for a long time, but after 13 km Zajíček started to lose and Moravek was significantly behind him. Zaječek was going through a crisis, facing stomach problems, but he fought and in the end tried to catch up with Morávek. However, Moravek defended the silver medal in his second lifetime time of 1:25:47, when he was only 23 seconds behind his best Czech U14 performance. Once again he confirmed the limit for Antalya, when the race suits him, there will be something to look forward to.

The third Zajíček, in addition to winning the bronze, could be happy about the limit for Antalya and especially the first time under 1:26:00. He broke this by 6 seconds and considering how bad he was during the race, the 1:24:00 time can be taken very seriously. If both competitors could do it already in Antalya, it would be fantastic. Our excellent trio finished fourth in MU and were only one place away from bronze! The men's team, which will be supplemented by junior Kukla for next year, is a great promise for next year's EC walking team, which will again be hosted by Podebrady.

The good news for Morávek, who was rightfully DQ in Dudince, is that, like Vítek, he received only one yellow card from the referees. It can be seen that he works a lot on the technique. Adam Zajíček then went technically perfectly, which was definitely not the case with him in the past. Well done, gentlemen.

In fourth place within the MČR, Lukáš Gdula could be satisfied with his performance. The performance of 1:28:24 is his best in 4 years. Rosťa Kolář finished fifth, Jaromír Hloch completed his first top 1 race outside the MČR and finished in 43:13:XNUMX. Malys did not finish the race, Pšenička resigned after three proposals. If he can master the technique, and I can personally say that although it is still not optimal, for me it was much better than in Dudince, he will certainly be an interesting domestic competitor. Physically he is well prepared. Although he also visited PZ in Dudince, he finished it. It was not worth it to continue on Saturday's demanding day after he was sent to PZ. Hopefully he won't be discouraged, referee Nedvídek will be happy to give him advice if he turns to him at a different moment than when the race is being decided.

Not even Josef Smola, a lover of walking and a great supporter of our discipline, finished the race. Despite hard training, at his age the limit of 16 km is very demanding and, unfortunately, unrealistic in the given climatic conditions at the age of 60. It ranks 1st for combativeness*.

Subsequently, the junior girls started their race. From the beginning, Ema Klimentová was at the head of the race, with the Spaniard Ventura setting the pace. Ema started after seven kilometers and overtook the Spaniard. She achieved a great OR of 47:37 and already in Antayla she will have the opportunity to strive for further improvement and the limit for the WC in Lima (47:00). Behind her in another group was Alžběta Franklová. She was only 2 seconds behind OR from Slovakia and finished seventh with a performance of 49:20. The sum of the placements secured the victory for the girls within MU! Congratulations. Lucie Krinwaldová from Mladá Boleslav also wore the national team jersey with them. She set off sharply in the first kilometers, but her overmotivation did not pay off and the second half of the race was considerably slower. She didn't have much to lose and gave it a try. She probably won't be satisfied with the performance, but it's certainly a lesson for next time.

Even among the juniors, our fighters did well. Albert Kukla was an aspirant for the TOP 5 and even exceeded expectations. From the beginning he bravely went with the best, he fought and even though he was not enough in the end, he managed to achieve a quality personal record of 42:44 and, above all, a great third place! The winner was the Frenchman Chenuet (42:15) and the second place was taken by the German Richardt (42:21). Albert already had a certain participation in Antalya, the next target will be the effort to participate in Lima. However, the 42:00 limit is really challenging. Vojta Novák also presented himself excellently, who is in his first year among the juniors and his performance de facto copies last year's results of Kukla. He also showed personal improvement, finishing in 46th place with a time of 26:11, and their excellent performance brought our juniors silver medals among teams within MU. The French team won, the Spanish pedestrians took the bronze. Peroutka from Dukla was third in the party within the team. He gave his top ten convincingly in 54:24 and confirmed further improvement. Another junior, Gloser, also finished the race, and he too was in the top ten under 60 min - 58:32. This is gratifying, let's be aware that last year the Junior MCR was canceled because only Kukla signed up. 4 potential racers is definitely an improvement.

The wonderful race in Poděbrady is behind us. It brought great performances by most of the Czech representatives and domestic success between the teams. However, the success of the juniors is also a warning. Both pedestrians will move to the women's category next year and there is a big performance gap behind them. The national team coach has a difficult task to work with the other girls, we have another team championship on home soil and she watches the competitions better when we have our team there. Peroutek will be able to complement Novák if he continues to work on himself and, for example, takes advantage of Karel Ketner's offer of help.

The Poděbrady race also determined the final form of the rep team for the Turkish WC in 2 weeks.

Vít Hlaváč and Eliška Martínková will represent us in the relay, Jaromír Morávek and Adam Zajíček will represent us in the men's 20 km course. Albert Kukla, Ema Klimentová and Alžběta Franklová will start in the junior category. We wish everyone a flurry of personal performances, fulfilled limits for season peaks at various levels and, above all, an Olympic nomination for our relay team.