And it is here. The third competition of the Czech Cup successfully came to an end. For some more, for some less, but simply everyone survived and no one came to harm. Above all, for men and women, this competition was no less important, because in the nomination for adults, no bad result is crossed out. Those who did not succeed during the three competition had a more difficult path to the national team. However, the nomination is not yet completely closed. According to the rules, the first 4 men and the first 2 women in the overall points standings are to be nominated automatically. The remaining 2 men and 1 woman are proposed by the national trainer based on the next ranking in the nomination, success at the Czech National Championship and other aspects. So some still have a chance, although the lower they are in the overall ranking, the weaker the chance.
The cadet and junior categories have the advantage that one (usually the worst) point result is deleted and the result at the Czech Youth and Cadet Championship is also included in the total. Therefore, even here, there is still a chance that those who did not succeed in this third competition can think about the nomination, if the previous two competitions did not go badly and the republic succeeds. Although it is not explicitly stated that the first 4 male and 2 female male competitors are nominated automatically, this clause is somehow still followed.
We were interested in the competition primarily from the point of view of the Czech Cup. The boys U15 category has recently been added to it, and the three best rankings in the pentathlon out of four competitions (the worst is eliminated) decide the winner. We had a good chance that Jihlava could win a double for first and second place at the premiere of this category.
Yeah... and we were under scrutiny. Kristýna came with us to check if we were not doing any problems at the competition...
This time the weather was fun again. Compared to the other nomination competitions, there was essentially no wind, but at the fly fishing distances the wind was spinning back and forth and while some were lucky and cast far, others were unlucky and had an unpleasant wind to face. Everyone had there one to two minute moment where the wind was at their back so something could be thrown in, but mostly the starters had the best tailwind conditions. In addition, the spinning distances were more like permanently upwind, in places perpendicular to the left. Those who could throw low also did not have such a big problem. Who could only throw high, the plug stopped like against the wall and fell closer.
For a while, the competition was interrupted by an unpleasant storm, so we waited for its leave before the last event started.
Karel is simply not doing well with the targets this year. The best 14 loss is pathetic and it wasn't good this time either. One long at fly skish, the last cast on spinning skish under the target plus an eight on the under throw, disaster. In contrast, the fly distance was the second best, he was one of only two competitors who managed to cast once beyond the 64 meter mark. Thanks to this, he reached the top five and supported it with the salmon, where he was the only one to score over 170 points with one cast over the 86-meter mark. But then came plug distances and traditionally it wasn't good again, low throws don't suit Karel. So, in the end, drop to 6th place in the pentathlon and 4th place in the heptathlon.
Tomas was great. We finally got the desired situation of seeing him come after the fly skish angry that he missed once. It sometimes happens that instead of excitedly frolicking about a new personal record, improved by 10 points, a person curses that he gave that the only zero so unnecessarily... And it continued to do well, another personal record came on classic skish, where he only missed three times. He was unlucky at fly distance when, as one of the few, he didn't have more wind support. The salmon wasn't quite the top either, but there it was mainly caused by holding the hand-line. He was even more successful at spinning distances. In an attempt to beat Karel, he performed amazing throws and in the end was only 23 centimeters shorter on the single-handed to get Karel. What didn't work with single hand, but succeeded with double hands. Tomas performed a perfect third throw and threw 80 centimeters further than Karel. His goal was accomplished... His first 700 points ever in heptathlon and improving his personal record by 43 points was just the cherry on the cake.
Zuzka is having a dream season. With two wins in the women's category, she entered the third competition and started with a loss of just 9 points on the targets, giving her a nice 14 point lead over the ladies.
Then fly distance came, which was not quite the best this time, but Zuzka still kept the lead. It was the longest cast she performed during the nomination competitions, but it wasn't the best. However, she left no chance for beating her. Casts fell beyond the sixty-meter mark, and the longest cast was only about half a meter behind the best distance in the category. And so Zuzka won the third nomination competition.
Because the three best results count for ranking in the Czech Cup, Zuzka became the clear winner even before the last race. In addition, they share first place in the nomination with the Silesian Lucka from Bohumín.
This time, we wanted to take all four boys to have a final test for the upcoming national championship, but Honza could not participate. So we took at least Peter, who joined regular participants Vojta and Adam. And Peter showed that he had not forgotten anything. In the very first event, he equaled his personal record, achieved the best result of this season on the arenberg, and equaled his record for classic skish as well. A perfect start and the first loss on targets under 100 points.
Unfortunately, we didn't have good distances. There was no wind on the fly distance that would support the effort, and although one cast fell beyond the 40-meter mark, which only three other boys U15 could do, it wasn't good. However, the best result of the season was still possible. Petr did not want to risk and cast 41 meters with the first secure cast. Unfortunately, other casts got stuck on his finger when turning and did not fly.
On the other hand, Peťa placed sixth position with his second best result and a loss of only 2.5 points from his best.
Competitors from Pelhřimov did not come so Vojta and Adam fought against classic rivals Jarda from Bohumín, Matěj from Kroměříž and Honzík from Chropyně. And especially against each other, because they both wanted to win.
That it will be an amazing fight was shown by the very first event. Both Adam and Vojta missed only three times, and Jarda also had this result. But Matěj showed the most, who missed only twice. For a change, Honzík showed himself on the arenberg, and with a two-point difference, Adam, Honzík, Vojta and Matěj were behind him. Jarda lost only a bit.
And while the best on the arenberg was Adam, the best on the skish was Vojta, who missed twice, followed by Adam and Matěj. After the targets, the differences were really in small points. Vojta led, Adam one point behind him, Matěj one point behind Adam. Jarda was down 30 points, but again we knew he had very good fly distance. And yes, he gave the second best 5 points in that event.
The duel between Jihlava guys Adam and Vojta took place at a distance. It's almost a tradition at this competition that both guys cast at the same time and each at the opposite end of the field. Something amazing for a their trainer. Daddy of Adam went with Adam with instructions that the most important thing would be to keep his head calm, because as soon as he gets a good cast, he will want to throw even further and start messing up. Well, Karel could slowly start a business based on those predictions, Adam made the best throw of all the boys U15, and then he wanted to keep cast further. Which in practice meant that the second longest throw was 10 meters shorter. Vojta also did cast one cast over 40 meters, although it was not as long as Adam's. In total, however, he gained less than two points more and increased his lead.
And the spinning distance came. Adam got nervous with the first cast because something tripped during the cast and the plug landed only 45 meters away. But with the second cast, he extended it to 57 meters and still had the hope of victory. Jarda's longest throw was less than a meter shorter, so it was up to Vojta what he would do. And Vojta was the only boy U15 able to cast over the 60-meter mark with his last cast. The winner has been decided.
For the second time in a row, Jihlava won a double. Vojta won the first place and Adam finished second with his new personal record in the pentathlon, improved by 7 points, and his first overcome of 420 points. Both boys were the only ones to break the 400 mark in boys U15 category.
All that was left to do was take the final photo, and we found out during it that Vojta can smile :))
The competition for the team from Jihlava turned out great. Although the boys didn't get to the junior national team, we're not surprised at all given the current state of our junior casters. The trainer's dream was something else - to win first and second place at the premiere of the boys U15 category in the Czech Cup. And it really happened. Before the last cup competition, we already know that even if Vojta and Adam would not go to it, they will take first and second place in the overall standings.
But they will go anyway, because there is still a fight for who will be first. Nothing has been decided yet, it could be Adam or Vojta. It will be exciting until the end.
Even before this event, the most important competition of the year awaits the Jihlava competitors - the National Junior and Boys Championship. Hopefully it will be successful there as well. The results of the other competitors in the student category definitely give us a strong indication that it will be another exciting fight.
We are looking forward to it...