Tomorrow (February 4), the next edition of the Czech Indoor Gala 2025, World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold meeting will take place in the Ostrava athletic arena. On this occasion, a pre-race press conference with some of the stars has already taken place at the venue.
Over 130 athletes from 34 countries will take part in the main programme of the Czech Indoor Gala this year. 30 medallists from the Olympic Games, World Championships and European Championships will be presented in the Ostrava arena.
“We are glad that after last year’s successful edition we managed to maintain our membership in the highest category,” Libor Varhaník, the President of the Czech Athletic Federation spoke. “It took a lot of effort and negotiation. I would like to thank the Moravian-Silesian Region and the Statutory City of Ostrava for their support. Without them, we would not have been able to maintain the golden category. The interest from foreign athletes to participate in the Czech Indoor Gala is enormous.”
“We tried to select the starting field so that the Czech spectators could look forward to the duels of our athletes with foreign stars. It is a challenge for them and I believe that they will successfully cope with the quality competition,” he said.
The support from the Moravian-Silesian Region has been long-term and consistent, as explained by the region’s Governor Josef Bělica. “We have been trying to support the meeting financially for a long time and I am glad that the biggest names in world athletics are being brought to the region and the city. I believe that the meeting will continue to grow in quality and prestige and hopefully everyone will perform well and the spectators will have the opportunity to enjoy top athletics to the fullest,” he said.
His words were complemented by the Mayor of the Statutory City of Ostrava Jan Dohnal. “As a city, we support a number of sporting events and I dare say that we manage to host them successfully. We have quality athletic facilities, which we are trying to develop and move forward in cooperation with the Czech Athletic Federation. The rally is a great advertisement for the city as well. Every year, athletes from all over the world come to our city and the broadcast goes to more than a hundred countries. Such events motivate many children from the region to take up athletics.“
Czech record holder to challenge Olympic medallist and four-time meeting winner
The women’s pole vault promises to be a very attractive spectacle. Where we can look forward to Amálie Švábíková, the face of this year’s edition of the Czech Indoor Gala. She is the fifth woman from the Olympic final in Paris, the Czech record holder and bronze medallist from the European Indoor Championships in Istanbul. Also, this will be her first sharp test under the guidance of Jiřina Kudličková (former Czech record holder), with whom she has been preparing since last autumn. Švábíková has not yet triumphed at the CIG. Her previous bests are second places from 2023 and 2024.
“I’ve had a good preparation under the guidance of my new coach Jiřina Kudličková and I’m surprised how well it’s come together. We tried to work on speed. We feel the biggest reserves there. A few weeks ago, I was a bit sick, which forced me to postpone the start of the indoor season. But tomorrow I want to fight for the first place and do my best. I am really looking forward to the race,” she believes in a successful performance.
She will need to perform at the top level to win the Czech Indoor Gala this year. Alysha Newman, the Olympic bronze medallist from Paris and holder of the Canadian national record of 485 centimetres, came to Ostrava. “My coach is from the region, so I feel at home here. I like coming back to Ostrava. I gained a lot of confidence after winning the Olympic bronze. I have improved a lot in my preparation in terms of speed, so hopefully I will be able to combine that with my technique. I’m looking forward to the duel with Amálie. I know what potential she has and our fights together are pushing me. I believe we will push each other and maybe break the meet record.”
The Slovenian Tina Šutej, who also holds the meet record of 482 centimetres, which is also her national record, wants to strive for her fifth Ostrava championship. The Italian record holder Roberta Bruni and Finnish Elina Lampela, who shared the fourth place with Amálie at the European Championships in Rome last year, complete the quality line-up.
Expected clash of the titans
The top event of the Czech Indoor Gala is annually the men’s shot put. Tomáš Staněk, the Czech record holder and five-time medallist from the major indoor events has dominated this event twice in the past. However, his road to a third triumph will be extremely difficult. The biggest obstacle should be Leonardo Fabbri. The European champion, Diamond League winner and with the Italian record of 22.98 the fifth man in the historical world tables returns to Ostrava after five years. In 2020 he took the second place here behind the former winner and still the record holder of the meet Konrad Bukowiecki. The Polish by the way will be again in action this time and Fabbri would certainly like to attack his record performance of 21.88.
“The training in South Africa went well. Now I’m a bit tired from the long trip, but I’ll rest today and tomorrow will be good. I am looking forward to the duel with Tomáš Staněk. He’s a good putter with a personal best of over 22 metres, so I hope we will be able to attack that tomorrow. Personally, I would like to beat it by as many centimetres as possible,” Fabbri said about his ambitions.
Tough debut for Alica Schmidt
One of the most popular faces of the meet will surely be German athlete Alcia Schmidt, who is one of the most followed athletes on social media. The girl, who has so far dedicated herself to the 400 metres, will have a very tough international premiere at the double distance.
„I’ve wanted to try the 800 for a long time and that’s why we focused our preparation on it after the Olympics. It’s a big change in training, but I’m enjoying the whole process so far. This event is a big challenge for me. I did my first race last week and it was a completely different kind of pain than what I was used to from 400. I’m looking forward to tomorrow,” Schmidt said, looking forward to her next start.
The hot favourite in the women’s 800 metres is world indoor champion and last year’s Olympic silver medallist Tsige Duguma. The 23-year-old Ethiopian has only been seriously involved in this event for two seasons. Other competitors will include experienced Noélie Yarigo from Benin, the bronze medallist at the 2024 World Indoors in Glasgow, and Gabriela Gajanová from Slovakia, the European vice-champion in Rome.
Each discipline has its own story
Fans of the queen of sport in the hall and on the TV screens are in for a truly spectacular athletics show. In addition to Alysha Newman and Tsige Duguma, we can also look forward to the other two individual medallists from the recent Olympic Games, Italian long-jumper Mattia Furlani and Polish quarter-miler Natalia Bukowiecki.
Apart from Kondrad Bukowiecki, five other meeting record holders will return to Ostrava, namely Polish sprinter Ewa Swoboda, Dutch quarter-miler Lieke Klaver, Portuguese miler Isaac Nader, Swedish long-jumper Thobias Montler and Ethiopian runner Freweyni Hailu.
There will also be a plethora of Czech record holders led by Radek Juška, Jakub Dudycha, Kristiina Sasínek Mäki and many others, as well as representatives of the successful upcoming generation such as Lurdes Gloria Manuel (400 m) and Petr Meindlschmid (long jump). The Ostrava crowd will certainly be wishing the best for sprinters Karolína Maňasová and Zdeněk Stomšík, for whom the local hall is the home one. The starting blocks will also include almost the complete line-up of our elite quarter-milers. Each discipline has something to offer.
National programme at social media, main on Czech TV
A number of talented Czech athletes will get a chance to showcase themselves already in the national programme, which will be available to watch from 13:20 CET on YouTube (Czech Athletics channel) or Facebook (Česká atletika). The main programme will then be broadcast from 17:00 CET by Czech TV Sport.
The international meeting Czech Indoor Gala is held with significant financial support of the Moravian-Silesian Region.
Petr Jelínek