Ambitions of Czech athletes at the European Championship 2018 Berlin

Ambitions of Czech athletes at the upcoming European Championship 2018 Berlin

Yesterday the first group of the Czech athletics team departed from Prague to Berlin, the venue of European athletics Championship. The Czech athletic team used for the journey to the athletic championship services of the national carrier České dráhy. Therefore the passengers who departed for their holiday, could meet a large group of the national team members, who gathered in front of the box office at the lower part of the lounge. The team will travel in two groups. The second group leaves on Monday morning.

**Ambice českých atletů a odjezd do dějiště šampionátu**

As usual, minor part of athletes leaves with medal ambitions and others with the opportunity of placings in final races or races in technical disciplines.

This year, our team is one of the most numerous comprising of 50 athletes, also as we have two relay teams in the men’s category and in women’s category the sprinter one.

Our medal prospects

The first day, on Monday, we can see two of our great candidates for the medal placement, namely Radek Juška in Long Jump and Tomáš Staněk in shot put. Both of them are in the top European rankings and have a chance to win a medal. The hardest in these races are the qualifying rounds, so we will be watching closely their results on Monday in these competitions.

Běh

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Other medail prospects and ambitions of Czech athletes

As it has been the tradition for years, the greatest ambition for a medal placement have our javelin throwers, even though the greatest star of the female javelin throw is on maternity leave. Nikola Ogrodníková replaced Barbora Špotáková with dignity. In the men’s category, the greatest chance of medal success have Jakub Vadlejch and Petr Frydrych. The question of the state of health of the first mentioned one will be answered only after the qualifying rounds, when we will know Jakub´s shape. The shape of the third javelin thrower Vítězslav Veselý is also unknown. And according the latest information Vítězslav Veselý will be replaced by Jaroslav Jílek.

This year, Jakub Holuša broke the Czech record on his track 1,500m and proved his high shape, so we can expect from him the struggle for the highest positions in the placements including those of medals. The same we can say about Zuzana Hejnová. As she did not take part in races recently, we do not know her current shape. We know, however, that she can struggle hard and is able to push herself to the limit during the greatest competitions.

Pole vaulters and sprinters

Once a large group of the pole vaulters has significantly decreased this year, both in female and in male category. Only Jan Kudlička and a new junior world champion Amalie Švábíková departed to Berlin. In this season the health complications of our record holder in the pole vault did not allowed him to perform better performance than those of the limit , so can await he can show his racing heart again and struggle for the highest positions. At a new junior world champion Amalia, it will be a success to advance to the main competition and gain experience among more experienced racers.

Now we can mention a large group of male and female runners. Both in the sprints, and in the middle distance tracks and in the hurdle distances. The positions of our athletes at the European charts range at the middle and for many of them it will be success to advance from the heats.

The first day will introduce the sprinters , namely Klára Seidlová, Zdeněk Stromšík, Jan Veleba and Dominik Záleský. Here the the advance from the heats will be a success as well.

Another large group are the runners for 400 m, where three women and three men will introduce themselves. Pavel Maslák has the greatest ambition to advance to the semifinals, but we cannot underestimate other runners such as Michal Desenský and Patrik Šorm in male category in women category Lada Vondrová, Zdeňka Seidlová and the new champion Alena Symerská. For all above mentioned it will be success to advance from the heats.

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Technical disciplines and hurdles

In technical disciplines we have representation at high jump Michaela Hrubá and Lada Pejchalová. In the shot put Markéta Červenková, in the discus throw Eliška Staňková , in the hammer throw Kateřina Šafránková and in the javelin throw Irena Šedivá. All the mentioned athletes range in the non-reduced charts in their disciplines at around 20^th position. And so advance into the 12-member finals will be a great success.

At the hurdles distances will introduce three men on 400 m hurdles, namely Michal Brož, Vít Müller and Martin Tuček. And in women category Lucie Sekanová on 3000 m steeplechase. Here we can say, that for each of them the advance from the heats will be success.

Mid-distance tracks

The mid-track will feature a large group of our athletes in the female category Kristiina Mäki, Diana Mezulianiková and Simona Vrzalová.

In the male category at 800 m will struggle Filip Šnejdr and Lukáš Hodboť. Here we can expect the advance to the finals, especially from the ever improving Simona Vrzalová. But we should not underestimate the other two mile-runners, although Diana reached better performances at 800 m and Kristýna at longer distances. Run 1,500 meters includes the surprise, especially from tactical runs and the possibilities of unexpected advances. Filip´s shape graded during the whole season so we can expect his great struggle to advance to the final and the second mentioned Lukáš will struggle for the experience and for the best result.

Runners, multi-event competitors and long-distance athletes, relay races

Finally we can mention group of 200m sprinters: Marcela Pírková and Jan Jirka, who will struggle for advance from the heats and it will be a great success for them. At the 50 km race walk Lukáš Gdula and at 20 km race walk Anežka Drahotová. According to the charts, Anežka ranges in the third position, so we await her results in the European Championship competition.

There are multi-event competitors, namely Kateřina Cáchová in heptathlon, and Jan Doležal and Marek Lukáš in the heptathlon. There we can await struggle among the competitors and points from each discipline.

The ambitions of the Czech relay team in women category at 4x 100 m and in men category 4x 100 m and 4x 400 m will be proved after the heats.

The long distance runners are represented by Jakub Zemaník nominated for distance 10 km.

The last day in the morning will feature Eva Vrabcová on the marathon track. She has already shown her struggler heart several times and we can look forward to her performance.