The Mattoni Running Festival in České Budějovice, held for the 13th time on the first Saturday in June, delivered a record-breaking turnout. The event reached a new milestone with 4,700 registered runners across competitive races and an additional 2,400 participants in non-competitive runs.
The race program, centered around Přemysl Otakar II Square, kicked off with the Vodafone 5k run, which also included a race for the University of South Bohemia Rector’s Cup. A total of 900 runners signed up for the 5K, with a remarkable 63% of the field made up of women. Nearly half of the participants came from the South Bohemia region.
Non-competitive runs, a hallmark of the RunCzech Running Festivals, continue to grow in popularity among children and families. In the early evening – also in the historical center of České Budějovice – the dm family run and dm bambini run took place, with distances ranging from 100 to 200 meters for the youngest participants. The traditional family race, open to all generations, covered one mile (1,609 meters).
The main event of the Mattoni Running Festival in České Budějovice, is the evening half marathon, which welcomed 3,800 runners. Ninety percent of the participants were from the Czech Republic, with other large groups coming from neighboring Slovakia, Austria, and Germany. Interestingly, runners from India ranked seventh in terms of international participation. The elite start list featured athletes from 11 countries, competing for strong performances and points in the second of four races in this year’s EuroHeroes series. Athletics fans were treated to the third fastest women’s time in the event’s history – Ukraine’s Mariia Mazurenko claimed victory in 1:12:16.
The EuroHeroes series continues at full speed with the Mattoni Running Festival in Olomouc on Saturday, June 14, where more than 10,000 runners are expected to take part across all races. All EuroHeroes half marathons this season once again carry the prestigious World Athletics Road Race Label. So far, 49 athletes from 13 European countries have participated in the two completed half marathons in the series.
Full results and more details about the 13th edition of the Mattoni Running Festival České Budějovice are available at runczech.com.
A large photo gallery from the event can be found on the RunCzech Flickr page: www.flickr.com.
Video coverage is available on the RunCzech YouTube channel with an English and Czech commentary: www.youtube.com/runczech and on social media.
Czech Television will air its traditional 15-minute highlights on ČT sport on Thursday, June 5 at 21:20, with additional reruns of the České Budějovice Running Festival recap to follow
