The mixed 4×400 meter relay will be presented first. Vít Müller will start from the sixth track. The second stage will be handled by Tereza Petržilková, followed by Patrik Šorm, and the traditional finisher is Lada Vondrová. The Czech mixed team won bronze at the world championships last year, but it will be very difficult in the Bahamas right from the start. Here, our team will compete with, among others, strong selections from Poland, France, Canada or Botswana, while only the two fastest relay teams advance to the finals. Progress among the elite eight, and therefore a certain qualification for the Olympic Games after the opening round, are the main ambitions of the Czech mixed relay team for Saturday’s start.
Due to the busy schedule, the women’s quadruple relay may have to do without Vondrová and Petržilková. Lurdes Gloria Manuel will probably run it from the start, followed by Marcela Pírková, Nikola Bendová and Barbora Malíková. However, the line-up may still change depending on how the mixed relay performs. The British women are the clear favorites of this start, and the Cubans and Irish women are certainly also thinking about advancing to the finals.
The composition of these two relays was explained by one of the responsible coaches, Jan Hanzl. “We have decided to field a mixed relay in the strongest possible line-up, while the heats of the women’s and men’s relay should be completed by the other competitors who are nominated. On the second day, the men’s and women’s relays should start in the strongest line-up for a change. However, this is the scenario in case the mixed relay managed to advance to the finals. If this were not the case, we will still have time to react and a situation may arise when Lada and Tereza will already run the start of the women’s relay.” he said.
The Czech team is sending a very experienced team to the men’s 4×400 meters. Matěj Krsek will run from the start, Jan Tesař is in charge of the second section and run, the third section is traditional for Michal Desenský and we can look forward to Pavel Maslák at the finish. Among the main candidates for the final promotion are, without sport, the champions from HMS in Glasgow, the Belgians, the other relay powerhouses are the Jamaicans, and great potential lies dormant in the Nigerian relay. These are the main challengers of the Czech lineup in this run.
If any of our relay teams were really unlucky in the start draw, it was the sprinters. They will face the last Olympic champions from Italy and the reigning world champions from the United States of America. If we add to this the recent winners of the African Games from Ghana or the winners of the World Relays in Yokohama 2019 from Brazil, this is a huge quality that the team of Zdeněk Stromšík, Jan Veleba, Jan Jirka and Ondřej Macík will face.
However, our sprinters believe that despite the not very good general practice at the meeting in Jacksonville, they will perform well, which is what coach Petr Habásko hopes for. “Unfortunately, the test race in Jacksonville didn’t work out for us at all, for a number of reasons. After that, we sat down and said some things to each other. The follow-up training a few days later looked good again and we will do everything to record the best possible result.” stated
