The Czech Republic 10,000 meter track championship took place in Holešov. Among the women, Moira Stewart finished for the eighth title. Martin Zajíc was king of the men for the third time in a row.
The weather in Holešov was not very kind to the perseverants. The entire championship race was accompanied by relatively high temperatures, and an even greater complication was the strong wind. Despite these pitfalls, however, the times of the champions had their quality.
Stewart back on the throne
In the women’s championship race, Moira Stewart started after a one-year break. The protégé of Václav Janoušek already collected seven titles at this championship in the past and was aiming for the eighth in Holešová. Her biggest competitor was supposed to be Simona Vrzalová, for whom, however, the track top ten was largely unknown. So far, she has run it only once in 2010, in a time over 38 minutes.
Very soon after the start, a group of four formed at the front. Stewart and Vrzalová were also accompanied by Bára Stýblová and last year’s silver winner Barbora Lampová. The latter dropped out soon after the second kilometer and Stýblová could not maintain the set pace much longer. The main two favorites continued to take turns dictating the pace in the next two kilometers. However, at the fourth kilometer Stewartová Vrzalová already started to run and was already running five with a ten-second lead in the intermediate time of 16:25.
Moira then only increased her lead to the finish line and calmly finished for the eighth title in this year’s best Czech performance of 33:18.05. Simona Vrzalová won her first medal in the track ten with a time of 34:22.31. Barbora Lampová finally won the bronze in a balanced fight in the individual medley with 34:40.84, who in the end got ahead of Bára Stýblová (34:56.71).
The hare completed a golden hat trick
The last two national championships in this discipline were won by Martin Zajíce. He thus sought to complete a golden hat-trick. After two kilometers, the leading group still counted seven runners, however, during the third, Zajíc broke away from the others together with another favorite and most serious competitor, Vladimír Marčík. They then ran together in five, still hoping that they could also improve their personal records, which are just below the 29:40 mark.
However, in the second half of the race, mainly due to the strong wind, the pace slowed down slightly. As far as the fight for the title was concerned, the decisive moment came approximately two kilometers before the finish line, when Zajíc joined his rival and he could no longer react. Martin Zajíc could thus celebrate his third gold medal in a row in 29:52.34. Vladimír Marčík achieved his maximum in this championship with silver. So far, he had bronzes from 2020 and 2022 in his collection. He managed the ten in Holešov in 30:13.47. Bronze medalist Lukáš Chwistek (30:48.71) could enjoy his first ever medal from the Czech Republic among adults.
The junior category was clearly dominated by Jiří Špiroch from Stříbr, who improved by one place compared to last year and took the well-deserved gold in 32:17.64. He was accompanied to the podium by Filip Cienciala from Třinec (34:13.92) and Matyáš Urban (34:29.35) representing ASK Dipoli.
Eliška Slaninová from Opava was the fastest among the juniors in 39:31.43. Hana Skácelová from Olomouc won the silver medal in 39:48.01. The bronze from last year was defended by Anna Slívová from Kopřivnice (39:59.90).
Results
