A press conference was held at the Adria Hotel on Wenceslas Square in Prague for the Czech Indoor Gala 2025, WAIT Gold meeting, which will take place on February 4, 2025 in Ostrava. Guests were the President of the Czech Athletic Federation Libor Varhaník and home athletes Nikoleta Jíchová and Jakub Dudycha. Other foreign stars were also announced.
The Czech Indoor Gala (CIG) is for the second year in a row included in the highest gold category of the World Athletics Indoor Tour series and is one of the nine most elite indoor meets of the season. Thanks to this, the preliminary start lists offer some truly top names who can boast medal successes from the Olympic Games and World Championships.
Libor Varhaník, president of the Czech Athletic Federation said: “I am glad that the athletes want to come back and that there is a huge interest in starting. And we are pleased with the spectator interest, it has been sold out since November. Working with World Athletics we have managed to release 50 tickets which are on sale now. I hope that the improvement on last year’s event will mean that spectators will be looking forward to next year’s event straight after the event.”
Czech 400m runners to challenge Bukowiecka and Klaver
The women’s 400m race should be one of the biggest attractions of the Czech Indoor Gala again this year. Its cast is truly top-class. Natalia Bukowiecki (née Kaczmarek) form Poland, the Paris Olympics bronze medallist and the reigning European champion, will come to the Ostrava arena. Ostrava is nothing new for her, as she has won at the last three editions of the Golden Spike meeting, being held just across the street from the arena. She has already competed once at the Czech Indoor Gala, in the 2020 season, when she finished fourth. This year, however, she is a big favourite to win.
However, this ambition may be thwarted by Lieke Klaver, the winner of the last two editions of the CIG. The Dutch pushed the event record to a top 50.54 sec last year. Just a few weeks later, she ran 50.10 at national championship, which moved her up to ninth on the all-time world lists. Outdoors, she then pushed her career best to 49.58. Last year, she could have rejoiced on 400 metres by winning silver at the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow and bronze at the “Euro” in Rome. On top of that, she has countless medals in her collection with the Dutch relays, including the Olympic gold from Paris.
Fans of Czech athletics can look forward to four elite domestic athletes, led by Lurdes Gloria Manuel, the fourth woman from the European Championships in Rome, Olympic semi-finalist and world U20 champion. Lada Vondrová, who even managed to win the Czech Indoor Gala in 2020 and finished third last year with Tereza Petržilková, another bronze medallist from the mixed relay at the 2023 World Championships in Budapest should not be missed either.
400m hurdles specialist Nikoleta Jíchová, press conference guest ran to fourth place in her main event in Rome last year. She also competed at the Czech Indoor Gala a year ago, where she pushed her indoor career best at 400 metres flat to 52.78, and now she is looking to push it further. “For me it’s a nice change (moving to 400m), less stress than in my main event. It’s also an important indicator of how the speed training went in preparation. I love running with the best, it’s an honour for me [to be at CIG],” Jíchová said.
800m: Czech record holder against major championships’ medallists
National record holder Jakub Dudycha will be the home favourite at 800 metres. Last year junior finished fourth at CIG 2024, in a then national U20 record of 1:47.42. A few days later in Nantes, France, he improved it even further to 1:47.12. He then achieved another significant performance shift outdoors as he advanced to the semi-finals at the European Championships in Rome in a time under 1:45 min. Then in Bydgoszcz WAIT meeting, he shone with a new Czech senior record when he knocked Lukáš Vydra’s 26-year-old time down to the current 1:44.82.
“I’d like to break the national indoor record, let’s see if it works out this season. It is difficult for me to get into the gold meeting, there are only six lanes in the hall and therefore few places. So, the CIG will be important for Tokyo, and it’s an honour to race against starts. I have beaten some Tecuceanu, never met with Crestan and I know it be extremely difficult,” Dudycha was quoted.
However, the road to improve on last year’s placing at the Czech Indoor Gala will be very difficult for Lukáš Dejdar’s charge. Belgian Eliott Crestan, the sixth fastest European in history will try to make it more difficult for him. A few months ago at Paris Diamond league meeting, he pushed the national record of his home country to 1:42.43. Crestan is a bronze medallist both at the European and World Indoors. (2023 Istanbul & 2024 Glasgow).
Another very fast athlete on the provisional start list is Catalin Tecuceanu. Romanian-born, representing Italy since 2022 ran to European bronze on his now home soil in Rome. He finished just below the podium at the World Indoors in Glasgow. His high quality PBs are 1:45.00 short track and 1:43.75 outdoors.
Another home athlete Daniel Kotyza will also want to confirm his good early form in the indoor season.
The Czech Indoor Gala will be broadcasted live via Czech TV Sport (17:00 CET).
The Czech Indoor Gala is greatly supported by the Moravian-Silesian Region.