Are the Czech athletes gonna fight for medals?
The Czech National MTBO Team is stably successful in international competitions. Every year the members bring a pile of medals, this year has not been an exception so far. 15 individual medals and two titles of world champions in relay brought our riders back home from the European MTBO Championship in Portugal in spring.
Vojtech Stránský became European Champion in the middle distance and Kryštof Bogar was second in the same discipline. However, Kryštof won his own title in the sprint distance, the same race where Veronika Kubínová finished third in the women’s elite category. Bronze medal was won also by Vojtěch Ludvík in the mass start. Even in the younger categories, our team did not lag behind. Natali Chamraďa, Tomáš Zrník, Tereza Kadlecová, Sofie Stránská - all these guys have more than one medal from the European championships and will be starting in Jičín.
One woman’s name is missing in the listing above and that’s Martina Tichovská. The mainstay of the women's part of the team, who could not participate due to illness, is concentrating all her efforts on the championship in Jičín. She will defend her bronze medal in mass start that she won at the last world Championships in Sweden and a bronze medal in the relay that she won together with Marie Kamarytová and Renata Paulíčková. Kryštof Bogar in the men’s elite category will defend a complete collection of medals - Bronze from the mass start and relay together with Vojtěch Ludvík and Jan Hašek, silver from the long distance, and gold from the sprint and middle distance. Also, Vojtěch Stránský will be defending a silver medal from sprint. One of our younger athletes, Jan Hašek, will defend his first individual medal in elite categories - bronze from the middle distance. He also won the U23 World Cup in 2022.
As you can see, the Czech colors are visible in the international competition and so this year the coaches, organizers, fans, and also the athletes themselves believe that some of the medals will not be traveling abroad. Come and support the competitors in the arenas and see it first hand.