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?

REGISTRATION LIST

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.  

Not only did the World Race Walking Tour Bronze level race take place in Guadix, Spain last weekend, but the day before the race, a webinar was held literally from the scene for athletic walking enthusiasts, officials, coaches and the athletes themselves.

The webinar was organized by World Athletics and hosted by none other than WA's Pierce O'Callaghan in collaboration with Luis Saladie who will be the technical delegate for Paris. As a TD, he mainly answered the questions of the participants in the chat.

The webinar consisted of three parts:

Part 1: Olympic relay - rules and information (we do not present the entire content of the webinar, only new information):

as known the relay will be the length of a marathon race - 42 m. The race at the Olympic Games will take place under the iconic Eiffel Tower on Martové polých, which will provide a beautiful backdrop for all the walking competitions.

The relay was chosen for one reason only. The Olympic Committee insisted on equal disciplines for men and women. The unattractiveness of the 50 km race and the low numbers of participants worldwide led to the change to 35 km. Even so, the OH committee made a request for a team competition. If that wasn't created, there would be only one walking discipline at the Olympics. The thing didn't cost 35 versus the relay. It was a relay race or nothing. The choice was more or less clear, if WA wanted to keep 2 pedestrian disciplines. And although the initial reactions of the pedestrians were quite pessimistic, the news from the world, where the athletes tried the novelty, is quite positive, the competitors like the new format and from the spectator's point of view it will be an interesting spectacle.

The race will be run by a team consisting of a man and a woman and they will divide between themselves 4 sections in the order M - F - M - F.

Each competitor must run at least 20 km. Although, due to the prescribed length of pedestrian circuits of length 1 or 2 km offers that the length of the sections is 11 195 - 11 - 10 -10, this will not be the case. The exact length of the sections depends on where the organizers can build facilities for rest / tune-up for the athletes waiting for the next section. In this part, which is very demanding on prosor, everything that is allowed in multi-competition competitions will be allowed. In both Paris and the qualifying Antalya, there will be tubs of ice water, athletes can refresh themselves, get a massage and if someone can do it during the three quarters of an hour, they can even take a nap.

Due to the given parameter, the first sections in Paris and Antalya will be different. The lengths of the sections will be as follows:

Paris 11.395 - 10 - 10 - 10,8

Antalya 12.195 - 10 - 10 - 10

As already known, 22 teams will advance from Antalya, while 5 countries can get 2 participation places. Subsequently, 3 teams will be added to the starting list according to the current world ranking:

https://worldathletics.org/stats-zone/road-to/7153115?eventId=10230211

For the relay outside the webinar:

The qualification period ends on 30.6. 2024. If any country, including ours, would like to repair Antalya and try to get a participation place in the Olympics through the world ranking, it is necessary to think and plan ahead at this moment. Tracks of the type used in last year's race in Nové Pács will not pass the world rankings. The race must be entered in the calendar no later than 60 days before it takes place and there must be at least 3 referees of international level. Time will tell whether the Czech relay team has a chance to participate. At this moment we can be pleased that participant of the Olympic Games is Eliška Martínková. She is currently 33 (48 female competitors) and de facto it is enough for her to win the championship in Poděbrady. Then it would be logical to try a relay with someone from the trio Hlaváč - Morávek - Zajíček (alphabetically). The potential Czech relay would most likely be on the edge of the promotion places in Antalya. Logically, it is suggested to try for the Olympics despite the ranking and prepare a race to be sure. You can always cancel it. The next months will show what the strategy of the Czech national team will be. For men, this is probably the only chance to watch the Olympics. The extremely difficult OH limit of 1:20:10 has already been met by 35 walkers at the moment, leaving only 13 places to participate via the ladder. Our men would have to improve significantly and run at least 3 really fast races in the spring months (in the case of Morávek and Zajíček, 2 would be enough). Realistically, the participation of our men is more likely at the EC in Rome, but even that would be a great success, given the low number of starting places (35). For women, the situation is easier, the limit of 1:29:20 has been met by only 20 women, so there are still more places left for female fighters on the ladder. There will be plenty to see in Antalya.

2nd part: the webinar was dedicated to the presentation of the WC walking teams in Antalya on 21.4. 2024:

The track of the WC race will be located at the Expo in Antalya, and fans can use the tram connection from the center and the airport. The tram stop is right in front of the Expo entrance. The day before the championship itself, with truly traditional test races. A 3 km race will be prepared for the youth, while veteran athletes will be able to complete a 5 km race. There is no link for registering for the race yet, we will inform you when it is available.

Part 3: Judging of walking competitions:

Last year WA held a series of online training sessions for new gait judges. For the first time, training videos were used where the Budapest races were broken down. The referees thus received feedback on their work for the first time in history. And it was not a positive assessment. Unfortunately, the referees have so far allowed a number of mistakes to pass, which has led to very fast times in recent years, but, from a layman's point of view, it was not good for walking.

Training of new referees, more frequent work with the existing ones, all this should lead to significantly more accurate decisions. Given that the race in Antalya will also be recorded and subsequently analyzed by Jeff Salvag from the USA, it is most likely clear how the decisions will be made in Antalya. If the referee has doubts and turned a blind eye earlier, today he is more likely to make a motion for exclusion. It does not mean that the competitors will go out wrongly, but where previously, according to the video, a clear violation of the rules passed, this will most likely not happen. And it will harden over time, all championship races will be recorded and evaluated.

According to expert measurements, the flight phase visible to the human eye occurs somewhere between 40 - 45 milliseconds.

The loss of contact will officially be considered for the evaluation of the work of the referees from what is over 60 ms.

What is interesting then is the promotion of knee braces. Everything from 174º should pass for the judges. However, anything below this level is a valid disqualification.

The message from the webinar is thus clear for competitors. Technique, technique, technique. That is the direction WA wants to go.

Whether a similar style of decision-making will be reflected in our races is a question. Unfortunately, referee training is not very frequent. We now have 2 judges on the international panel - Nedvídek, Lapka. Both mentioned have already received invitations to international competitions. Most recently, Martin Nedvídek will also referee at the European Championship U18 in Banská Bystrica, and M. Lapka is TD for Dudinc (golden race). Hopefully, our judges will prepare articles or webinars about their experiences from international competitions and pass on their experiences.

What should the two gentlemen on the panel help to enforce (as well as the union), je setting up a penalty zone. In the past, M. Lapka presented this, which is now more of an old thing than a new thing, to the pedestrian public in his articles, stating that WA promotes the application of PZ at all races. It doesn't happen after sin. At last year's MČR, the reason for not establishing a PZ was the alleged financial burden of this rule. However, we rightly believe that it is more about the inexperience of the Czech organizers and the reluctance to implement something new. What is really needed at PZ? 2 young assistants or referees of the 3rd class. Two stopwatches. After all, the number of visitors to the PZ is not so high that more is needed. And 6 cones or other marks used for children's training, with which PZ is distinguished. The first opportunity to use PZ will be this Sunday. And in the hall, with a 30-s penalty, it would be a more than interesting element.

M35 Linke's world record at 3.000m - 10:44.00 (WR) in Erfurt, great Czaková at 5.000m - 21:28.80 (PB) and excellent Úradník - 19:32.30 (PB) in Bratislava and finally Olympic winner Palmisanová at 10km - 44 :02 in Guadix, Spain.

Slovak neighbors currently have 3 pedestrians who are able to walk in less than 20 minutes, and hopefully we will be able to say the same after the upcoming MČR!!!

Even the past weekend brought, from a pedestrian's perspective, a whole series of interesting and fantastic performances. There are!!!

ERFURT - international meeting, 2.2.2024:

RESULTS

German pedestrians detonated the resulting bomb on Friday evening. At the traditional international meeting of the bronze level in Erfurt, the German walking elite presented themselves in the 3000 m race.

The Germans took the race as a test after returning from training in South Africa and performed really well.

German record holder Christopher Linke set the pace from the start. This competitor, born in 1988, entered the M35 category last year and also set a world record for this age category of 11:07 in Erfurt. The Olympic Games are a huge motivation for all athletes, and this can be seen in the performances already in the indoor season. Linke flew through the track in a huge personal record, a meeting record, but above all he again improved the world best performance of M35 - 10:44.00. However, he still lacks Tom Bosworth's (UK) absolute world record of 10:30.28. However, Karl Junghannß is also excellently prepared, he breathed on Linke's back and at the finish line he too could rejoice at a performance under 11 minutes in a time of 10:48.79. Olympic medalist Jonathan Hilbert finished third in 11:27.98, who is slowly returning to the track after a series of injuries and mental burnout. A very interesting performance was performed by the youth European champion Frederic Weigel. The son of a famous father and trainer crossed the finish line in 11:59.46 in fifth place.

Slovak Championship, Bratislava, February 3.2.2024, XNUMX:

RESULTS

On Saturday, the Slovak national championship took place in the Elán sports hall in Bratislava.

Among the teenagers, 16 girls started and all the medalists broke the 15-minute mark. The winner was Petra Kusá, who already came very close to the 14-minute mark - 14:09.65, in a personal record.

The junior race was clearly dominated by Lukáš Rosenbaum, who very narrowly missed the mark of 13 min - 13:03.88. Even the second finisher, Mažgút, was able to get under 14 minutes - 13:40.46.

For the women's competition, the Slovak officials announced an unconventional 5m. We have repeatedly appreciated here how extremely well-thought-out and sophisticated the Slovak coaches are in the fight for (not only) Olympic points in the world rankings. From this point of view, the inclusion of a distance of 000 m was hardly surprising. The five is counted in the scored distances for a distance of 5000 km. Therefore, those who strive for points for the European Championship or the Olympic Games have a chance to win valuable plus points for the championship competition over a shorter distance. The race must be registered in the WA calendar and supervised by at least 20 judges of international level.

The juniors also joined the women at the start. Right from the start, coach Matej Spišiak's mentee Mária Katarinka Czaková set the pace of the race. She is currently ranked 38 (there are 48 female walkers traveling to the Olympics) and a quality performance could move her to a more secure qualifying position. And the excellently prepared Czaková performed it. She reached the finish line in a time well below the planned performance and thanks to the result of 21:28.80 she can enjoy not only the title, but above all a shift in the ranking.

Hana Burzalová also came far behind Czaková in a quality time, who became the domestic number one during Czaková's maternity break and last year, after returning from training in Australia, she showed significant performance progress. The time 22:37.71 definitely belongs to the quality ones. Klauda Žďárská took third place after last year's not-quite-successful season with a performance of 10 seconds under 23 minutes.

A high-quality performance and medals will surely be an encouragement for her for the next season.

An attack on ranking points was also expected among the men. In the absence of the best Slovak pedestrian Dominko Černý, Miroslav Úradník clearly won the title. He is moving just behind the advancing group at the OH and needed a performance of around 19:15.00 to advance. Although this did not come true for him, he still set a personal record and 19:32.30 is definitely a performance that we would like for our pedestrians as well. In the shadow of Úradník's performance, Michal Morvay also managed an excellent time under the magical 20-minute mark. He can definitely be satisfied with his personal performance of 19:54.13.   

Slovak neighbors currently have 3 pedestrians who are able to walk in less than 20 minutes, and hopefully we will be able to say the same about us after the upcoming MČR.

GUADIX - bronze meeting Pedestrian Tour - 4.2.2024

RESULTS

In Guadix, Spain, the traditional bronze meeting of the Pedestrian Tour took place on Sunday. In this area at this time the weather is suitable and even the best pedestrians choose the races for the performance test.

However, the races are primarily a competition of a huge number of child walkers. Anyone who has seen videos of dozens of children rushing down the track at short distances knows exactly why Spain is a walking superpower.

The women's 10 km race was dominated by the Italian Olympic champion Antonella Palmisano - 44:02. She recently tried a walking relay.

Her compatriot Francesco Fortunato won the men's 10 km competition - 40:18. He too has completed the relay test in Italy and the Italians will definitely be the ones who will strive for 2 pedestrian teams at the start of the OH competition.

Prebor of the Liberec region, 27 January 1.2024, Jablonec nN:

RESULTS 

Race Jr. 2000 female athletes took part in the girls' 2 m, Kateřina Kratocvílová from Rumburk was happy with the victory ahead of Terezka Lukášová from Chomutov. She completed her first walking race and was 13 seconds behind Kratochvílova (14:5). 

Vojtěch Landyš from Mladá Boleslav won the 3000 m race among pupils in the new OR, who for the first time got under 20 minutes - 19:49.75.

Noemi Maják from Kadana won the girls' race, significantly improving her OR and meeting the limit for the MČR with a time of 17:32.85. ASK Dipoli finished second with a time of 19:25.06, and third place went to Madalena Sabová from Rumburk, who was less than a second behind OR from Silvestrovská hall.

In the junior category, Viktorie Ertlová from Chomutov won in a close fight with Musilová from Dipoli, but even the winner's time of 19:14 is not enough for the best student.

Among the juniors, Ema Kyselicová was happy with the victory - 16:56 and thus beat her rivals, the second Smolíková (18:22) and Ides (21:13) from Dipoli, by a class difference.

In the women's race, Johana Petříková from Prague achieved 15:24.32 for the high-quality OR, who continues to improve gradually. Veteran Lenka Borovičková crossed the finish line in second place in a quality performance of 16:53.37, Martina Netolická from Liberec finished third.

The men's (and teenagers') 5000 m race was run together. Rumbur veteran Martin Nedvídek clearly dominated his training pace - 23:17.46. In recent days, he has been celebrating successes in the "buffoon" field. Martin became an international judge of the silver category last year, and the first invitations to international competitions did not take long. He was thus invited to judge the highest category races in Dudince and Poděbrady, where we will see him years later in a role other than racing. An even greater award came from World Athletics, when Martin was nominated as a technical delegate for one of the world's largest gold category races - the meeting in La Coruna. !!!CONGRATULATIONS TO MARTIN!!!

However, it is not the only success in the official field for AC Rumburk. Newly, Jan Rein and Lucie Nekulová joined the panel of ČAS competition managers, and Czech walking now has representatives on the panel after a break.

!!!CONGRATULATIONS TO LUCIA and HONZ!!!

Finally, Czech walking gets fresh wind in its sails!!!

Fresh teenagers were fighting for the next places behind Martin. Last year's two-time student champion of the Czech Republic, Dan Mochal, showed a quality indoor performance of 24:47.43, which is his absolute OR. Ondřej Plecháček from Turnov reached the finish line third (second in the junior race) in 26:10.02, and Vojtěch Vejvančický from Rumbur was 10 seconds behind. Even for Vejvančický, it is an absolute OR, which can please his coach Jan Rein. All three competitors are still novices at this distance and we can certainly look forward to further improvement in the next races. Their performances are a promise before the MČR, where last year the teenagers did not perform very well.

Olomouc, 27.1. 2024:

RESULTS 

The race was also held on the Olomouc indoor circuit. The 3000 m race was dominated by Orlík from Vyško, teenager Čeněk Topor with a performance of 16:59. 74, ahead of veterans Zajíc and Mark.

Among the women, Nela Skupieňová from Šternber reigned in the new OR 17:18.44 ahead of her team colleague Jurkuláková - 17:39.96 and Ivana Vranková from Opava - 17:48.59.

However, the competition was not only held in the Czech Republic. Among the most interesting performances of the past weekend are the following meetings.

In France, 3000 and 5000m races were held in Vittel on Saturday. The women's race was dominated by the champion from last year's ME 23 Pauline Stey - 12:42.13 ahead of the winner from Zittau Camille Moutard - 13:11.32. 14 female walkers got under 5 minutes.

However, the performance of the day was demonstrated by the Žitav winner of the 35 km race, Aurelien Quinion. After training sessions in South Africa and Portugal, he improved his OR - 18:50.38. Immediately 4 competitors got under the magic limit of 20 minutes.

RESULTS 

Ludmila Olijanovska, whom we know well in the Czech Republic thanks to Pražská Hodinovka, started outside the main competition in the men's race on Saturday at the competitions in Kyiv. In the men's race, she significantly beat her rivals and achieved a performance of 20:50. If this were a race on the WA calendar, then Olijanvska's performance would be a world record over the distance. Unfortunately, the WA calendar included the 3000m race for women and the 5000m race only in the men's category.

However, the biggest draw of the weekend was the fights in Australia. The traditional Supernova meeting, included in the World Pedestrian Tour, a bronze level race, attracted a large number of walkers. There were really great performances to see. A number of male and female athletes have been training together in Australia in recent weeks and, just like last year, it has been shown that international training in the Australian summer suits the pedestrians.

27.1. women started on the 10 m track. From the start of the race, the trio of Olympic champion Liu (China), Montag (Australia, silver from Budapest) and Arenas from Colombia led the way. With a distance of 30 - 50 m, the French pedestrian Beretta ran her race. The women started at a more moderate pace of 4:30/km, but it gradually picked up. 5 km was just over 22 minutes in the meantime. At that moment, the French athlete began to pull back her loss and soon caught up with the leading trio and even went to the front of the race. The Chinese legend Liu couldn't handle further acceleration and started to lose. 2m before the finish line, local star Jemima Montag made a strong start and completely destroyed her competitors.

With a performance of 43:14.78, she defended her victory last year, and in Paris the medical student will be one of the favorites. Colombian runner Arenas finished second - 43:27.48, and for third place, but above all, a personal and national record was achieved by a French runner - 43:35.53. Greek champion Ntrismpioti (W40!!!) finished in fifth place behind fourth Liu, still in under 45 minutes!

The race can be viewed at STREAM HERE - Day 2, the men's race is then under the Day 3 tab.

RESULTS

A day later, men also tried out the 10m. Home fighter Kyle Swan led the field from the start along with Rhydian Cowley, but Tokyo 000s medalist Evan Dunfee of Canada held bravely between them. And it was the Canadian who dictated the pace in the second half of the race, tore apart the leading three and not only achieved a great victory, but also an extremely high-quality national and North American record - 38:25.42. The dream of an Olympic medal from a shorter distance is becoming more and more real for Evan. Both Australians Swan and Cowley managed to get under the 39 min mark - Swan 38:46.99 Cowley 38:55.20. Australian youths also performed well, the U 18 record was set - 41:30.77 by Bailey Housden.

Even the Australian race after the Turkish one showed how great the Olympic motivation is. Only 48 men and 48 women will get a ticket to the Olympics. So we have a lot to look forward to in the coming months.

Pedestrian weekend at home and in the world. Great performance by Zajíček in Ostrava, NR France in Nantes and fast relays in Italy.

The weekend walk brought a number of interesting results. We wrote about the Turkish championship and Eliška Martínková's triumph in another article, but other pedestrian events also deserve our attention.

Championship of Moravia and Silesia, 21.1. 2024, Ostrava:

RESULTS

ADAM ZAJÍČEK 5.000m walk 19:53,42!!! BRAVO, BRAVO, BRAVO!!!

A total of 41 male and female walkers took part in the race, while the Moravian competitors were supplemented mainly by competitors from AK Plzeň in the open race.

3000 girls took part in the schoolgirls' 11 m race. Viktorie Vaňková won in the new OR 17:04. This competitor has already broken the 17-minute mark outdoors, and it is obvious that she will soon succeed indoors as well. The winners' podium belonged entirely to competitors from Frýdek - Místek, Viktoria was joined by Veronika Zvonková and Adéla Krausová also in OR.

Among the pupils, Daniel Herman from the Břeclav section managed to win, the title and the new OR - 16:33.99. In a close finish, Miroslav Myška, also from Frýdek, lost by 3 hundredths of a second. Hynek Svoboda, a member of Karel Ketner's Ostrava walking and running group, won third place and the limit for MČR in his first walking race. After OR at 1500 and 3000m, Svoboda also added walking and perhaps he did not stand at the start for the last time. The finish was seen by 4 competitors, all in OR, one fighter was disqualified.

The junior competition was won by the Frydek competitor Eliška Říhová - 16:17, her training partner Eliška Kokořová finished second - 16:23. Aneta Dojčárová, Jiří Malysa's protégé from Pilsen, finished third, having significantly improved since last year's first starts to 16:36. The only junior started - Michaela Šubrtová from Holešov - 19:24.

Among the women, Nelly Bugárová from Pilsen, Lexa Malysa's protégé, rejoiced at the victory, in a new high-quality OR 15:23. Porub's Vivien Uvírová also demonstrated a performance shift - 16:14. The third Díková also performed OR - 17:28.

Then the men, juniors and teenagers started together. Adam Zajíček performed a great performance rarely seen in the Czech Republic. Karel Ketner's protege confirmed last year's performance progress and after a successful performance in Poděbrady and the ME U23 showed that Ketner's preparation is definitely going in the right direction and towards the 2024 season. The first kilometer in 4:02 was just the calm before the storm. 2 km in 8:02, 3000m in exactly 12 minutes, the fourth kilometer in 16:00. Then Adam braced himself for acceleration and was able to pull off a full 7 seconds. In Cili, the timer showed a wonderful performance of 19:53.42!!! Personal best improved by 40 sec. Bravo, bravo, bravo. In a solo race, after returning from a training camp in the Tatras, where he trained in the cold and snow.

In 2021, after many years, Vítek Hlaváč performed 5000m on Czech territory under 20 minutes. However, he had an escort for part of the race in the form of Lukáš Gdula. Adam completely single-handedly went 2 seconds better. Let's hope that he will build on his performance in the next starts and will have capable opponents in the form of Jarda Morávek and perhaps also Víti Hlaváč.

Another ward of Karel Ketner, junior Albert Kukla, appeared second in the cell. He, too, improved significantly in the hall, finishing 22:47 for OR and perhaps even he hasn't said the last word and will cut a lot of his time. Veteran Rosťa Kolář finished third in 23:28. Vojta Novák from Frýdek also broke the 24-minute mark - 23:52, and this newly minted junior can be expected to make further improvements at the MČR.

Nantes 21.1.2024:

RESULTS

On Saturday 20.1. the best French walker Gabriel Bordier stood at the start of the 5000m in Nantes. So far, the French competitors have recorded performances of over 20 minutes, but it is true that the biggest aces Bordier, Quinion, Campion have not yet appeared at the start.

Gabriel Bordier was his biggest rival in Nantes. He flew through the track in the best world performance of the year and above all improved the NR of France by more than 20 seconds. Time 18:25.52! The second in Cilia Pickart was almost 4 minutes behind. Bordier therefore awarded him a kilometer on the 5000m long track!

Junior Lisa Goulard won the women's 3000m walk with a time of 13:56.61.

The weekend was also marked by relay starts in the USA and Italy:

USA RESULTS

In the USA, in addition to relay races, there were also other walking disciplines. Mexican Brandon Segura dominated the 20 km with a performance of 1:23:16. Among the women, his compatriot Ilse Guerrero reigned with a performance of 1:30:37.

However, the main draw of the race day was above all the start of the relays. The Americans fielded 16 teams of various performance levels. America's top walker Nick Christie joins forces with Miranda Melville and

they ran for the win and a solid performance of 3:13:27, with which they hold 10th place in the world.

In Italy it was 21.1. in Bari - Modugno:

RESULTS ITALIA - BARI

The race was dominated by the Chinese team consisting of Kaihua Wang - Jiayu Yang. With a great performance of 2:59:09, they were able to beat even the Italian champions, and with their time they are in second place behind the unrivaled performance of the Ecuadorians from Santiago de Chile, where they showed 4.11. time 2:56:49. 

Second place was taken by the local Italians in Bari. No one less than the Olympic winners from Tokyo / Sapporo Massimo Stano and Antonella Palmisano decided to test the new Olympic discipline. They fell behind the Chinese by 21 seconds, with a time of 2:59:30 they are in third place in the world, and after the race they let it be known that this format of the race suits them very well. They will definitely go to Antalya and Paris to fight for one of the medals.

The world takes preparation for the Olympic relay very seriously, most teams want to try this format before qualifying in Antalya. We'll see what ours have to say. Eliška Martínková is already certain to participate in the European Championship in Rome, and to be sure of the Olympics, she only needs to finish solidly in Dudince or Poděbrady, where bonus points await in the MČR. Karel Ketner's wards are obviously also working hard at speed, and it would only be logical if Eliška joined forces with one of Karel Ketner's wards in Antalya. The race in April will show whether our walkers will lack relay experience, or whether they will stand at the start of the relay at all. 

While the announcement of the relay caused mixed feelings among the competitors, the experience on the race track is more or less positive. The team competition gives a new charge to the individual discipline, which until now was walking.

Türkiye Race Walking Championships (World Athletics Race Walking Tour Bronze) + U18/U20, Konyaalti Boulvared ANTALYA/TUR, JANUARY 20, 2024

RESULTS

Stream: 

On Saturday 20.1. Turkey's Antalya hosted the first bronze meeting of the Pedestrian World Tour this year.

At the start of the first race, 19 women and two men, who tried the OH relay race, lined up. Right from the start, the petite Turkish pedestrian from the city of Diyarbakir, Meryem Bekmez, set off at a very sharp pace. The first kilometer in 4:26 showed how fast the race will be in Antalya. The Turkish competitor was eager to secure a start at the Olympics and also to show a performance that will encourage her ahead of the World Team Walking Championships, which will be hosted by the Turkish seaside resort.

Most of the female competitors stayed together for the first kilometer and a half (4:44), the group was led by Czaková (SVK), who was subsequently replaced by our Martínková. After about 800 m, one of the stray dogs decided to join the female competitors at the turn, which in Turkey is nothing less than a kangal cut by a street mix, while it is definitely not a pug in terms of size, so the female competitors probably got quite stiff. The organizers quickly drove the dog away, which they had to do several times during the race. Fortunately, during the World Championships in April, the circuit will be surrounded by fences, so street crumbs should not get under the competitors' feet.

Behind Turkyní, the Czech competitor Eliška Martínková held on to second place from the start.

Surprisingly, the Kazakh competitor Morozova set the pace with her for the first few kilometers. Her OR from last year was 1:36:42 and she was definitely not one of the favorites.

In fourth place, Mária Katarinka Czaková from Slovakia, the winner from Dublin in December, set her own pace. Czaková carried on her back another Czech athlete, Olympian and tenth from the World Championships in Budapest at 35 km, Tereza Ďurďiaková.

Meryem Bekmez and Eliška Martínková, both kept intermediate times above or just below the 4:30/km pace level. And both had a technically very, very handsome race indeed. The Turkish woman visited the penalty zone in Poděbrady last year, Martínková was disqualified at the ME U 23. However, both competitors did a lot of work over the winter and entered the new season with technically confident performances, which were a joy to watch.

Looking at the distance between Bekmez and Martínková, the race was consistent up to 15 km. After fifteen kilometers, however, the Turkish woman started to slow down and was no longer able to get out of a major crisis. It Martínková continued to keep the pace, she was able to get under 4:30, and in Turkyna she reached 2 laps before the finish line and gradually moved away from her. In the last kilometer she still managed to finish (4:22) and crossed the finish line in a great personal record of 1:30:08 and at the finish line she could rejoice at a great performance together with her coach K. Čermáková. Both can say that they got the most out of the December training camp in Tenerife. By winning the OR, Eliška will improve significantly in the OH rankings. Before the race, she was 40th, and that definitely did not guarantee her safety at the Olympics (48 female walkers). After this race, he will jump significantly in the rankings and can slowly start planning the trip to Paris in August. CONGRATULATIONS ELIŠCA!!!!

Czaková gradually worked her way up to third place at a fairly consistent pace. For the first 9 km, she carried Terka Ďurdiaková on her back, whose display of strength lacked lightness. After 9km, Tereza dropped out, Czaková overtook the Kazakh pedestrian during the next kilometer (she showed OR sub 1:34:05)) and reached the third podium in bronze meetings in a row! She also took another important step in the fight for the Olympics.

Tereza Ďurdiaková after letting go of the Slovakian, she stopped at the side of the road and even though she then returned to the race for a few more kilometers, she did not see the finish line and thus adding another DNF. If he wants to fight for further participation under the Olympic rings, he must perform very well in the spring in Dudince, Poděbrady and at the WC in Antalya. Unfortunately, she has only one top 1 finish in the last year, when she finished second in Gdańsk, Poland, but her performance of 34:58:XNUMX will not get her to the Olympics.

In the men's 20 km race (15 starters), the local Mazlum Demir dictated the pace from the start of the race, and the Slovak walker Miroslav Úradník kept up with him for 9 km. The Turk also achieved a new OR of 1:23:04 for a clear victory.

The second Official lost to him by 46 seconds, but another place on the podium in the bronze meeting and, above all, a move in the Olympic qualification, counts. The first start of last year's third junior Poděbrad H. Yildiz was interesting, he started his career among men with fourth place behind his training colleague Şenodunec in the new OR at a distance of 20 km. At the age of 20, he can be expected to improve on this excellent time of 1:25:44 in future races.

The start of the young competitors in the 10 km was marked by very heavy rain. During the race, it stopped raining, but the youth certainly did not have an easy race.

Among the juniors, domestic athlete Mehmet Güngör won, who improved from last year by about 15 seconds to 43:14. What some juniors did in the rain for the first 10 minutes (running around, unsupported knees) is rarely seen.

Among the juniors, Kateřina Čermáková's other protégé, Ema Klimentová, led the starting field from the start. She coped with the weather changes excellently and started the season with a victory and a great time of 48:30. It is her second best performance, when she was only 15 seconds behind OR from last year's super fast Poděbrady. Bravo. Alžběta Franklová came fourth, who tried to hang in a group with Klimentová for the first 3 km, but in the fourth kilometer she already went over 5 minutes and finished the race in 51:13, her second best top ten performance. 

The Turkish World Walking Tour is behind us, and other big races are waiting for not only our competitors, probably in Dudince, Slovakia. And as you can see, there will be plenty to see.