The seventh annual Czech Indoor Gala international meeting took place in the Ostrava arena on Thursday. A new meeting record was set in seven events. From Czech stars, Amálie Švábíková, Lada Vondrová and Petr Svoboda took second places in their events. Filip Sasínek achieved a national all-time maximum in the 1-mile race.
Slovenian pole vaulter Tina Šutej likes competing in Ostrava, and she confirmed this at this year’s Czech Indoor Gala. She decorated her triumph with a new national record of 482cm. She improved her own indoor maximum by six centimetres and it is also her absolute personal best. She moved it by two centimetres. The former meeting record 471cm, held by Iryna Zhuk of Belarus since last year, also fell. Šutej also consolidated her position as the leading woman in this year’s world rankings. Czech Amálie Švábíková could also be satisfied, as she jumped to the silver position in her second start this year in a new indoor career maximum of 457 centimetres. Italian Roberta Bruni finished third for 452.
This year’s best European performance was seen in the women’s 400m. After the meeting in Ostrava, its new holder is Lieke Klaver of the Netherlands, who, with a time of 51.00, also improved the meeting record held by the Polish Anna Kielbasinska from last year. Lada Vondrová finished in second place in a personal record of 51.57. She reduced her career high from 2020 by 25 hundredths and moved to the fifth position in the Czech history tables, ahead of former European indoor champion Denisa Helceletová. In this year’s current European ranking, Lada is fourth. Ukrainian Viktoriya Tkachuk took third place in the sum of both runs, thanks to a time of 52.39.
In the men’s 400m, the fastest times were somewhat surprisingly in a B run. The overall winner of this event was the Dutchman Isayah Boers in 46.36, who had an exciting duel with the Ukrainian Danyl Danylenko (46.46). The second race was won by Matěj Krsek, to the delight of the Ostrava audience, with a new indoor personal best of 46.49, which moved him to ninth place in the Czech history tables. Vít Müller (46.72) also reduced his time sub 47 seconds.
The hurdler Petr Svoboda is currently basking in the second place of this year’s continental tables, thanks to his time from the heats, where he won in 7.56. In the final, he overslept at the start and had to make up for the loss, even so it resulted in another great time of 7.58 and second place. Only the victorious Cuban, Rober Iribarne, was better than the Czech record holder, who won the final in a personal best of 7.54. Polish Jakub Szymanski was third in 7.59.
The same event among women, an attractive spectacle was already confirmed by the heats, where Nadine Visser of the Netherlands set a meeting record with a time of 7.86. She improved the performance of the British Tiffany Porter from 2016 by three hundredths. However, she had to settle for a second place in the final. American Alaysha Johnson triumphed here in 7.87. Visser ran 7.96. Denmark’s Mette Graversgaard was third in 8.07.
Filip Sasínek was attacking his own national historical maximum from 2016 in the one mile race and wanted to become the first Czech runner to reduce the indoor time of this distance to under four minutes. He accomplished that goal, crossing the finish line in fourth place in 3:57.62, knocking over two seconds off the seven-year-old record. Serbian Elzan Bibič won in the meeting record 3:55.90 ahead of Austrian Raphael Pallitsch (3:57.22) and Dane Emil Danielsson (NR 3:57.28). Even the seventh Jan Friš was not far behind the now-former national maximum, who took home a personal best of 4:01.35 from Ostrava.
The meeting record did not stand even in the men’s 200, where Cuban Reynier Mena was supremely the fastest in 20.64 and cut 23 hundredths off Tomáš Němejc’s record set last year. The second was Jan Jirka in 20.91 and the winner of the first run, the Dutchman Taymir Burnet, finished third (20.95). Ján Volko improved his own Slovak national record to 20.97.
In the final of the shortest sprint at 60 meters, Briton Jeremiah Azu confirmed his role as the main favorite, flying through the straight in 6.58. The Japanese Shuhei Tada (6.59) was only one hundredth slower. Cuban Reynier Mena finished third in an indoor career best of 6.61. Of the Czech sprinters, only Jan Veleba was able to break into the elite eight, who qualified with a time of 6.66 and repeated the same performance in the final, where it was enough for him to take fifth place.
The women’s triple jump took place at the Czech Indoor Gala for the first time ever, and the winner was Slovenian Neja Filipič, who set the meeting record at 13.86. The Italian Ottavia Cetonaro was only a close second, losing only three centimetres to the winner. Mariko Morimoto took third place thanks to a new Japanese record of 13.53. Right behind her was Emma Maštalířová, who significantly improved this year’s best Czech performance to 13.25. At her international triple jump premiere, Michaela Hrubá finished sixth in the indoor PB 13.08.
The women’s 1500 meters race was incredibly dramatic until the final meters. In the end, Ethiopian Tigist Ketema was happier in 4:08.84 ahead of Swiss Lore Hoffmann, who ran a personal best of 4:09.02. Poland’s Weronika Lizakowska finished third in 4:09.97. Unfortunately, Kristiina Mäki did not finish the race when she retired about two laps before the finish line.
In the men’s 800m, the competitors did not accept the pace too much, so the winner was decided only in the final finish. Abeddal Ayouni of Tunisia had the most strength, who won in the new indoor national record 1:47.97 ahead of the experienced Bosnian Amel Tuka (1:48.09) and Croatian Marin Bloudek (1:48.76).
The Cuban Lester Lescay Gay dominated the long jump reaching 784 centimeters. The second was the Italian Fillipo Randazzo. Czech record holder Radek Juška took the imaginary bronze position when he recorded 769 centimeters.