The winners of the 48th International Meeting of Podebrady Walking were German Christopher Linke and Italian Eleanor Giorgio. Anežka Drahotová and Lukáš Gdula were able to enjoy the championship titles.
The twenty women were gallanting the Italian favorite Eleanor Giorgi. She fired at a lightning speed just outside the opening meters and Anežka Drahotová was the only racer to keep pace with her. Our representative began to lose contact during the fourth kilometer, and for fifteen her husband in Italy was eleven seconds. In addition, she had to resist attacking other opponents. Brigita Varbalyte-Dimšiene was the first to take her in the eighth kilometer. In the middle of the race, coach Dr Pitak figured in the third position with a loss of less than a minute to Giorgio. Two kilometers later, she dropped to the fourth position as she did not resist the attack by another Valentina Trapletti Italian. Five miles ahead of the finish was preceded by Litevka Živilé Vaiciukevičiute. At that time, Giorgi led a luxury lead one and a half minutes ahead of the second runner. She threw herself fearlessly for the triumph, which adorned the record of the meeting 1:28:49. Litevka Brigitta Varbalité-Dimšienova finished in second for 1:31:05, and another deputy of the Italian Horses school Valentina Trapletti (1:31:36) completed the casting of the winners. One share has been offended by the fourth Litevka Živilé Vaiciukevičiute (1: 31: 53) compared to last year. Agnes Drahotová reached the finish in fifth place at 1:32:22 and won her fourth title of the champion of the republic.
The course of the male race was a bit more dramatic. In its opening quarter, a nine-member group was featured, with none of the favorites. At the tenth kilometer, only three of those who were champions of Germany, Christopher Linke and the Mexican couple Horacio Nava and Ricardo Ortiz, were at the top. At that moment, the tactic started, and the tempo fell slightly when Linke had just dragged his Mexican rivals. A similar scenario took place until the end of the eighteenth kilometer when the German took it and its competitors could not respond. The target tape broke victoriously at 1:21:55 and rejoiced at his third victory at this meeting. He also won in Poděbrady in 2015 and 2017. Horacio Nava climbed on the silver step in time 1:22:13 and bronze was hanged by his representative colleague Ricardo Ortiz (1:22:28). The fourth came Frenchman Gabriel Bordier (1:23:02) and the fifth place was occupied by German Hagen Pohle (1:23:20), who did not repeat his third place last year. The best Czech competitor was Lukas Gdula, as expected, at 32nd place at 1:31:04. He also added the fourth master gold to his collection for 20 kilometers.
The ten-kilometer juniors race was flown by the fastest German favorite Julius Richter. The sixth of last year's MEJ in Grosset was very early after the start of the race to build a fairly solid lead and dominated in the initial kilometers. She had, however, two pursuers in the form of Kazakh, Ekaterina Slykova and Andrada Lacatus of Italy, who were gradually approaching her. They were followed by Irka Orla O'Connor, who showed that she had bestowed the best power when she came both to both Slykov and Richer. Lacatus was disqualified in the middle of the race. In the second half of the race, O'Connor gained its lead and the finish went through a win at 49:23, which meant improving the personal record by one minute and twenty-three seconds. Yekaterina Slykovova came for second place in 50:15. Julia Richter (50:35) took Bronze position. Fourth ended by Ema Hačundová (51:04) and Valeria Disabato from Italy (51:09) closed the elite five. The best Czech competitor was Jana Zikmundová in 22nd place at 1:01:21.
In the 10-kilometer junior competetion, a pair of favorite Frenchmen David Kuster and Greek Yeóryios Tzatsimakis broke away from the rest of the field just after the start. On the first start, he decided on the fourth kilometer of Kuster, but he was not successful. On the contrary, on the seventh kilometer, Tzatsimakis attempted to do the same, and his biggest rival broke. In addition, Kuster had two red targets and had to slow down, which the Polak Lukasz Niedzialek had even improved for the second time. But the Frenchman managed to keep him. Tzatsimakis in the meantime did not raise his lead and he did not get the first prize when he won the new personal record 41:45. David Koster chose the silver win in the final round, when he managed to move away from the pole and goal scored 42:07. Lukasz Niedzialek had to settle for bronze and 42:14. The Top 5 was completed by Italians Davide Finocchetti (43:57) and Diego Chirivi (44:14). Rostislav Rožnovský was the best nineteenth of Czech competitors for 46:33.
