Rapturous Half Marathon premiere on the colonnade. Wanjiru triumphs after long finish.
Yesterday saw the Karlovy Vary Colonnade undergo its rite of passage to become a fully-fledged RunCzech race host.
It
was a fantastic race premiere for the Mattoni Karlovy Vary Half Marathon
boasting an excellent turn-out of 1 500 enthusiastic runners with a further 600
participants join the 3 km Mattoni Family Run held earlier on in the day. In what was to be a truly captivating finish,
victory ultimately went to the hot favourite from Kenya, Daniel Wanjiru who
managed to condense the race into a mere 1:03:02. When it came to the women,
16-year old Mame Feyisa from Ethiopia triumphed with a time of 1:12:47.
A
satisfied Wanjiru who spends a great deal of time training in the Austrian Alps
revealed: “The course involved both inclines as well as downhill stretches, but
I’m experienced in running hills. I really enjoyed it,” He went on to comment
on his almost two hundred meter sprint at the end along the banks of the River
Teplá: “I started to believe it as I approached the finish line.”
It
wasn’t until this point that he was able to break away from 20 year old
Ethiopian newcomer to the half marathon course. Even after the race, the brave
Fekru Feyisa wasn’t prepared to let go of his chance at victory: “If the last
stretch had been shorter, I would have been able to beat him. So far my experience has been limited to
steeples, cross-country and 10 km runs and I had no idea what to expect from
such a long course.” The battle for third place was also left to the final
sprint, with Moroccan runner, Abdelmajid El Hissouf finally securing himself
the last spot on the podium.
Feyisa’s
sister triumphed bringing further glory to the family collection. “I’m really
pleased, I really liked it here, the city as well as the race,” the
slightly-built young girl revealed modestly.
Behind her in second place was fellow compatriot Fasika Metafriya
followed by the mother to a four-year old back home in Ukraine, Olga Kotovska.
The
first Czech to cross the finish was Ondřej Fejfar, occupying sixth place
overall and emerging as the fastest European. “I was planning on starting off
slower and sticking with a group. But in the end I ran alone. I had it worked
out for a personal record (editor’s note: in the end he missed out on this by
four seconds) but the last four kilometres were tough going. The only thing
driving me forward was the finish…, in the end I was slightly slower, we had to
contend with the hills and cobblestones.”
Regular
local rivals Ivana Sekyrová hailing from the nearby town of Sokolov and Petra
Kamínková led an interesting duel for the best Czech female position with Ivana
ultimately knocking Petra off the top podium spot. It’s amazing to think how she fits it all in.
On Friday, just one day before the race she managed to pick up the European Veteran Champion
title at
a 10 km run in the town of Úpice
following this with a relay race
together with Metelková a Dubnová where she contributed to the group secure
itself a cross-country Gold over 3 x 2
km on Saturday morning. With barely any
time to recuperate, she jumped in her car and headed straight to Karlovy Vary.
“I put
in a fair performance, there have definitely been worse, and despite the bends
and hills, the course wasn’t bad. You could stick to a pace. With Petra
(Kamínková), we agreed beforehand that we’d put on a fight for the people and
it worked out pretty well. We maintained a pace of under 1:19, then at around
the seventeenth kilometre I managed to speed up and stay like that right up
until the finish,” she explained. Hana Randáková from Slavia Prague emerged
third with a time of 1:30:01.
The
running celebration saw a range of personalities flock to the Spa Capital. In
charge of starting the race alongside City Mayor of Karlovy Vary, Petr Bursík
was three-time Olympic medallist, Lukáš Bauer who subsequently stayed on to
watch the race with his whole family. He wasn’t able to take part on this
occasion due to having undergone foot surgery to remove a growth. “I managed to
fit in a two and a half hour bike ride this morning, it was snowing over there
in Boží Dar,” he revealed grinning.
Local
onlookers had the fortune of seeing a truly euphoric City Mayor of Karlovy
Vary, Petr Kulhánek cross the finish line. Only two weeks after completing the
marathon in Prague (3:33) he managed to improve his half marathon personal
record finishing in 1:35. “Unbelievable and amazing, great,” he commented. “The
atmosphere and the people put me in the right frame of mind which was why I was
able to run really well. I wasn’t expecting it at all.” Meanwhile former hockey
goalie, Lukáš Mensator completed the race in 1:48:18
The RunCzech Running League heads to South Bohemia in two weeks time on 8th June for the Mattoni České Budějovice Half Marathon. Fans will have another chance to check out Karlovy Vary winner, Daniel Wanjiru whose sights will be set on beating Daniel Chebii’s fantastic result of 59:49 from last year which emerged as the twelfth best time of the year.
Tomáš Nohejl
RunCzech, Media Service