Traditional rowing races of the Prime Minister, June 4, 2023, Prague.
Prague – The sixth triumph in his career at the Primátorky is for rower Lukáš Helešić encouragement for the next part of the season, in which he would like to try to qualify for the Olympic Games in Paris 2024 when he returns to an active career In 2020, shortly before his twenty-fourth birthday, Helešic unexpectedly quit top-level rowing, but he started training again last fall. This year, he formed a crew with Václav Baldrián and they want to succeed on a double without a coxswain.
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“I stopped rowing at the top, but I still moved. I switched from Dukla to ČVK Praha to maintain myself. A lot of people started circling around me, gnawing at me. My girlfriend at home also said that I was still young, so that I wouldn't regret it later in life . I tried it and it started to go well. Step by step, I'm trying to get back among the elite in the Czech Republic,” said Helešic after today's triumph at Primátorky, where he was the coxswain of Dukla's main crew.
He quit years ago also because rowing stopped fulfilling him. At the same time, he had already started at the Olympic Games in Rio 2016, together with Jakub Podrazel, they won the World Cup. The atmosphere at last year's World Championships in Račice, which he watched as a spectator, also encouraged him to return to top sport.
“Last year in October, November, I returned to two-phase training and the body remembered,” said Helešic. In the spring, he formed a crew with Valerian, who, like him, became a junior world champion. Helešic in 2014, Valerian four years later. “The first races in Bled didn't go very well for us, so we have a lot to fix,” he pointed to the failed European Championship in May.
But Helešic does not make a tragedy out of it. “Here we improved our appetite and psyche a bit, for which I am very happy. After all, we have been rowing together for three months,” said Helešic, who is happy that he can train in Dukla in Michal Vabroušek's group together with the best Czech crew Miroslav Vraštil, Jiří Šimánek .
The program for the next months is clear, prepare well for the third race of the World Cup in Lucerne and then succeed at the World Championship, which will also be a qualification for the Olympics. “That was my idea why I came back. The Olympics. I'm not interested in anything else,” Helešic admitted. In order to advance to Paris, he and his partner must finish in eleventh place.
Helešic has returned to rowing, but in addition he continues to work as a civilian real estate broker. “Rowing is now a free sport for me. I have to do well in several areas,” he remarked with a smile. He therefore combines training with work. “How will it look on Monday? In the morning I go to training, change clothes and go to the office. I already have some meetings planned,” he added.
