Matěj Krsek, the current best Czech quarterback, dropped out of the bronze medal squad from last year’s world championships because his achilles hurts and he is not in optimal shape. The Czech mix at the start was not enough for Poland, France and Ukraine. With a performance of 3:16.56, he was 1.85 seconds away from advancing. “Unfortunately, we will rehearse tomorrow and try to fix it,” regretted Müller in an interview with the athletics association.
Petržilková was delayed by a fight with a French woman. “Unfortunately she cut me right after the run and it absolutely threw me off my stride. So I stopped and started running again, so this alone is a huge loss,” she explained. Reserves were also seen by the finisher Vondrová. “I guess tactically I stupidly estimated the pace for the first 200. I wanted to go into them first, but the wind was blowing, so I thought I would wait, but in the end I didn’t have the strength anymore,” she remarked.
The fastest time in the heat of 3:11.52 was shown by Americans Matthew Boling, Lynna Irby-Jackson, Ryan Willie and Kendall Ellis. The Netherlands, which modified the original entries and entered the indoor world record holder Femke Bolová and another strong fourth-place finisher Lieke Klaverová, came right behind them.
Due to the non-advancement of the mixed relay to the finals, its members did not start in the men’s or women’s relay. The fourth-place finishers of Lurdes Gloria Manuel, Marcela Pírková, Nikola Bendová and Barbora Malíková were fifth in the heat with a time of 3:34.85. Fourth-place finishers Krsek, Jan Tesař, Michal Desenský and Pavel Maslák took seventh place in 3:06.86.
Zdeněk Stromšík, Jan Veleba, Jan Jirka and Ondřej Macík also finished seventh in the 4×100 meter relay. They posted a time of 39.21, but were far behind in a packed field of opponents. The reigning world champions, the Americans (37.49), and the Olympic champions from Tokyo, the Italians (38.14), succeeded in their run.
