Illustration photo – Czech distance runner Radek Juška, January 22, 2022.
Istanbul – Distance runner Radek Juška advanced to the finals of the European Indoor Championships. The silver medalist from 2015 placed seventh with a qualifying performance of 786 centimeters. Matěj Krsek confidently entered the 400 meters race in Istanbul. He won the heat in 46.23 seconds ahead of defending champion Óscar Hussilos of Spain and was second overall behind the favored Norwegian Karsten Warholm.
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Juška, who got into the nomination thanks to a wild card from the Czech Athletic Association, could calm down already after the original jump of 782 centimeters. Based on the analysis of the results of the previous championships, he believed in advancing. “We were already safe. We went with a reserve so that there would be all three attempts,” a confidant of Josef Karas told Czech Television.
In the second series he improved by four centimeters, in the third he added 784 centimeters. He held on to the third position for a long time, until in the final round he dropped to the seventh place. As in the domestic indoor championship, he competed with a bandage on his injured right hand. “At least some stimulus will occupy the monkey in the head, take away all the stress and so on. So it's actually a plus,” he noted.
Twenty-two-year-old Krsek ran first in the start and kept the leading position until the finish line. He came within nine-hundredths of his personal best from the recent national championships, building a good position for the early evening semi-finals. “It's a second time, but I've seen runners from other heats run similar times and drop at the finish line,” he said. He's a little worried about how he'll handle two Thursdays in one day. “I'm still terribly tired, it's hard to say,” he said.
Amálie Švábíková started the pole vault qualification. Lada Vondrová and Tereza Petržilková will perform in the 400 meter heats, Kristiina Mäki will fight for the final of the 1500 meters in the morning.
