The peak of the youth season - the National Championship of juniors and boys/girls U15 came. So the peak was for most competitors. About 9 of them will have their peak of the season only in July, when they will cast for their country at the World Championship in Hungary.
The National Championship flows differently than classic competitions. By default, each event is casted and the result is counted to the final pentathlon. But before competition moves to the next event, the order in each category is done to the best result. If there are more people with the same result, then it depends on the type of event. For target events, a faster time decides during which the result was achieved. So a caster who throws 80 points on arenberg within 2 minutes is in order higher than one who casts 80 points on arenberg within 3 minutes. It is different for distance. It doesn't happen very often, but sometimes it happens that two casters have the same long longest cast. Then there is one in the ranking above the others that has a longer second best cast.
In each event, the 8 best boys and 6 girls go to the finals. So according to the rules. Practice is a bit different. For several years, boys are supposed to be 8, but mostly there are only 6 starts for event, so there are decisions that only 6 boys will go to the finals so that they do not have to divide into two rounds. It has already happened that during first round had better wind than during the second round and therefore the casters in first round were in the advantage. This year, the discussion about it was forgotten and first events were driven as part of the tradition of the last few championships. Two managers of the territorial associations then remembered that nobody had decided how many persons should go to final but in this way a final of one event was completely done and final of the second one was running, so no one did want to make problems and events were left in traditional condition.
In each final each caster started with zero and this round decided on the winner of the event. And so it could have happened that caster originally at sixth position could win gold medal at final round. The final result, however, did not count in the pentathlon, where the original result counted.
For several years, certain territorial unions have been involved in the training of children and the event of Multi Skish, which is not a standard youth event. However, it is an interesting relaxation for them and as it is casted by adult casters, the young casters want to cast it too. Due to the growing number of casters that want the cast it, this event has appeared several times at the Youth Championship and is announced as a separate event that is not included in the any-thlon. This year more than half of the girls and boys were involved.
Well... just for the introduction :)
... and something for going on.
The championship is primarily a duel of territorial unions. Competitors usually do not represent their mother organizations, but the territorial association. Sometimes it happens that the competitors for the union are so much that it is unable to pay everyone. In this case, there are competitors who pay their local organizations.
The duel of territorial unions is realized by team competition. There is one category for each sex. Boys' teams consist of four boys of the union and compete in the sum of their pentathlon. Similarly, the competition of girls is taking place, but there are two-member teams.
Jihlava casters went to the competition to represent the Moravian Angling Association. This time there was space for everyone's participation, so everyone went. True, not everyone had sufficient experience, after all, Honza and Petr cast only the second year, but every opportunity has to be taken. There is no better way to get to know the behavior of the body when the weight of the significance of the action lies on You and the desire to cast the best than it is at the championship of the Republic or the world. Jihlava was represented by Adam, Honza, Vojta and Petr.
And now we can go through the competition...
The competition takes place in two days and who wanted to cast Multi had to come to Kdyně at 13 o'clock. Targets for Multi and Arenberg were waiting for the competitors to cast. Everybody who wanted to cast could arrive in time. There was enough time to practice and then Multi Skish was launched at half past two. All four boys of Jihlava casted it.
Well, it was obvious that the boys had not trained this event during last weeks, we focused mainly on the pentathlon. To make it not easy, coach Karel did not take equipment to the last training because he completely forgot them. But the boys casted anyway. There was a lot of time for training. The danger was that all the boys would get to the finals, which would be a problem because we have only three rods. But on Petr, the nerves of the first such event were already here and he failed. Adam went to the final with the best result, which was casted by Martin of Bohumín too. Jarda of Bohumín and our Vojta were very close behind them.
The fact that Bohumín can cast this event we saw in the final. Both guys improved their results by 10 points, and although Adam casted as in the basic round, both boys got over him.
And so the first event was won by the still laughing Martin before the still thoughtful Jarda. Jihlava took the first medal thanks to Adam, who won bronze. Honza finished on the potato place (4th) right behind him and Vojta was fifth.
Not only Adam won a medal for the Moravian Angling Association. In the junior Ondra gained the silver. Got enough points but with slower time. And Robert won bronze. Both guys from Kroměříž. After the first event Moravian Angling Union had 3 medals.
And that time all casters arrived already and National Championship 2022 of U15 and U18 could officially be started. It was amazing that such an action was not missed by the mayor or deputy mayor of Kdyně, as well as by the chairman of the local angling association, by the chairman of the National Casting and even by the chairman of the Czech Angling Association. That last one is also a member of the West Bohemian Territorial Union. The organizer Mr. Nejdl welcomed all of them and after the initial speeches of all honorary guests, each group of casters received memorial T-shirts to remind them this event later.
And competition could start. With Arenberg. Unfortunately, we found out that Jarda of Pelhřimov did not arrive. Even so, we fought in the group of 18 boys U15 and it was not easy. The first nerves came and mostly we saw it on Peter, who simply suffered the event. Everyone truly experienced with nerves probably knows how unpleasant it is when when the body shakes and the hand does not listen to the head. This experience feeling for first time sent Petr down a lot. We tried to help him let it go and focus on team members and other events.
The best caster of U15 was Matěj of Kroměříž, who casted 94 points. Behind him placed Jarda of Bohumín with 90 points. The surprise of the discipline was Láďa of Vítkov, who only met this sport last year during the holidays. The incredible progress helped him cast just like Honzík from Chropyně, but thanks to faster time he moved to the final from the sixth place.
Other places were filled with our guys. And it looked like they made a deal. All three had 88 points. Honza was the most angry. He was told that if he would cast at least 90 points, he would get a high-speed reel for casting. When he came to the sail, he said "yeah ... and I will definitely get 8 points with the first cast and then I will have 88 points finally". His clairvoyant skills would be useful to use in lottery, because it really happened that way. He left the arenberg walking sad, having point book in hand so deep that almost cutting the grass with it. He then asked sadly if there would be a possibility to get the wobbler if he would cast 90 points at final round. A positive answer poured new blood into his veins.
In the final, Honza did not accept any chance to cast below 90 points. The motivation was really great. The black target in the middle did sound like bell, when a plug of Honza hit him every cast. Only three casts missed the target, resulted by eight, gave Honza a fantastic result of 94 points. In addition to the new personal record on the arenberg, he shone with enthusiasm that the would get the reel. What about winning a gold medal, not interesting... He would get the reeeel ...
In the final, only three boys U15 were able to cast result with nine at the beginning of the result. Best done by Honza, casted 94. Two points less casted by Vojta. Adam casted two more points less.
Karel, the Jihlava guys trainer had never dreamed of such a result. Jihlava took triple from the arenberg and won three more medals for Moravian Angling Union.
And another title of the Czech champion, i.e. the gold medal, was won by the Robert in the junior category. So we already had two golds, two silvers and three bronzes.
Then all moved to camp. It was useful that there was a swimming pool beside it, so the boys could cool down and fool with the other boys and with the girls. But in the end they had to go to bed. After a small celebration, they settled into bed to be prepared the next day.
The trainers spent the evening in their own way. Some grilled, some were tasting various drinks and with that drinks a lot of important information was discussed. It can't be discussed here, but - it was huge.
Finally, they went to sleep too to be prepared to help their casters.
The next day after breakfast, fly skish was waiting for sleepy competitors. Everyone has somehow become accustomed to be waking up every competition within this event, so it was no surprise that it was started by this event here too. The national trainer also watched the current casting form of some competitors.
For Jihlava it is an unpleasant event. We do not have so many rods available and we do not have enough experience to cast alone. After all, Honza and Petr cast fly skish for about a year. Well, we had to solve it. We tried proactively at Vojta, who seemed to be the most able to cast alone, whether he would be able to fight another rod. And it wasn't bad. So we covered three casters and one had to wait. Fortunately, it was perfect during time and everyone could cast with support.
Fly skish is domain of Jarda of Bohumín this year. He as the only one of U15 boys was able to cast 100 points during spring and he showed us this time would not be easy with him again. At regular round he missed only twice. Another hard opponent was Matěj of Kroměříž that missed only once. Moved to final from 1st place.
Petr was the best of Jihlava team. We know for a while that he has the best technique in our team but he is having problem with head that is causing worse result than he could have. The best result of last year was 70. This year had results - 70, a little less, 70 and 70 again. Damn 70...
But this time it was great. Only 3 times missed target and perfect new personal record 85 points. Petr placed 3rd position in based round and got to final round where... ... he was fourth. He casted 70...
Beside the Petr also Vojta and Adam got to final. Honza did feel like walking through the hell. Something like Petr while casting at arenberg event. Tears appeared. But with great support of his team members reminding him that he already is the national champion of arenberg, Honza was able to quickly let the disaster go and support guys at final.
Final round was not good for Vojta, he was the last. Well, Adam got 90 points like Jarda. But Jarda did it faster so he won. Adam got silver for Moravian Angling Union and Matěj of Kroměříž added bronze medal.
If we check result of fly skish this year, first three casters were really the three best fly skish caster in boys U15 category.
After this event, Moravian Anglin union had 9 medals so far.
Next event - spinning skish. Last accuracy event to be done.
Hell time for the third caster of Jihlava. That time - Adam. He could not understand how it is possible that hand does not listen to the head or how it is possible that the body can start shaking. In the same time when Petr was happy for 65 points as his second best result caster for third time, Adam took the result as his total failure because during last competition he had casted 20 points more. Honza got 80 points, his second best result and second 80+ result in a row.
Vojta showed his best form. We do not understand how is can do it. Everyone is casting with line of 0.16 or 0.18 mm. Thanks to Vojta we know the skish can be also casted with 0.26 line. We found the mistake and wanted to give him thinner line but... You know, he is really good with the 0.26mm line. Why to change it if it is working. And really - Vojta missed only once and with 95 points he got to final placing 1st position. No other boys U15 or U18 was able to cast more.
At the end of regular round we saw that all four boys got to final. Fantastic result that made a lot of happiness.
In the final Vojta and Honza had the same result - 75 points. Vojta was 18 seconds faster than Honza.
We know that if Adam really fails once at any event and get second chance his mind changes. He starts being 100% focused on that event and fights for each point. Although wind did not make the event easy, Adam was waiting each time it was necessary and tried not to hurry. That is why he was the slowest boy in final round.
But Adam was the only one who could get 80 points. Thanks to his focusing and waiting he got above all the others and got his first title of national champion.
Spinning skish was another medal triple for Jihlava. Fighters Adam, Vojta and Honza got for Moravian Angling Union another three medals and raised the amount to 12.
The trainer was happy just for a while, he had to solve another problem - four boys almost in the same time and only two rods for them.
At the beginning the sector was prepared with wind from right to body. Wind sometimes in right angle to the sector was not such a big deal but we know that when the event is started the caster is being whipped by the line like a slave in the Greek boat. And we were not the only one dealing with this problem, girls had also the similar problem. That was probably the reason why Stanislav Honzírek from Kroměříž suggested the change the direction of the sectors. Not everyone aggreed with him but most trainers decided to let sectors direction turn. In case of headwind children should not be whipped .
After a few minutes we saw the decision was good. The wind went good direction. And so fly distance single handed was started. With Adam his father went to help. Karel took care of the rest. Luckily everything was fine.
Except for Jan. Based on his nerves the hand was not able to listen his head. With first bad casts the typical beginner's mistake came. Beginners mostly think that if the line does not want to fly, caster must use much more power. At that moment the casting technique is left behind and caster casts much less but this caster recognize at the moment when casting is over. Unfortunately Jan could not get out of this mind settings and fly distance pulled down his pentathlon result. A pity.
Fantastic result was done by Vojta that was the only boy U15 got over 90 points. The biggest rival Jarda of Bohumín had the second best result 10 points less. Petr was the third, got over 80 points. And Adam got to final too.
We could see that Adam had it enough. In fact he was casting two competition together as he got to all finals. And during final of fly distance we saw he was very tired. For 11 years old boy it was very hard competition. But he did not want to give up. But was weak after whole day, took fifth place.
Petr did not expect so great result in basic round and so he wanted to cast more in final. But with this wish he forgot to think about technique and focused on power. And the casts were bad then. That time we could not get over 40 meters.
Karel could not be in the same time with Petr and Vojta so he asked Jiří Plachý and Miloslav Krejčí to help Vojta. As Miloslav said later, he liked that he and Jiří had seen the same mistakes of Vojta. Vojta liked the support of the two guys. But the fight was not easy, Jarda was still closer and closer and also Max from Frýdek-Místek had great casts. Those three boys were the only able to cast over 40 meters. Břetislav, the trainer of Bohumín was very happy thanks to casts of Jarda and was still running between sectors checking who won.
Finally Vojta was winner. In the great fight he was able to cast 30cm more than Jarda and got another gold medal for Moravian Angling Union. Done by rod crated by Jiří Smazal from Jihlava.
Although Vojta and Jarda are big rivals, friendship did not disappeared. As it can be seen at the picture where Jarda was smiling...
The last event had to be finished. Spinning distance single handed. Event deciding results of pentathlon and teams.
That time we were ready, each caster had his own rod. With technique even Zuzana helped while spending a lot of time with Vojta and then informed us what should be told him.
Spinning distance is regular problem for Jihlava casters. Except for Jitka Pausarová that was brilliant in this event, each caster did suffer. It was important to put first cast to sector, get calm by it and cast on. Well, it did not go this way. Only Adam casted into sector with first cast, others were out. So second cast had to be secure one to be sure we have some points. The problem was that secure cast was nothing for Vojta. Jarda of Bohumín had a long cast and did lead the pentathlon of boys U15.
Honza was despairing. During training everything went great, but during competition within first cast finger released line too early, second cast for secure to 36 meters and third lined wrapped finger. Similar way was for Petr. First cast not released from finger, second cast for secure to 37 meter and third cast release too early and out of sector. Adam was successfully erasing leading of Matěj but Matěj had great last cast and got over Adam.
Most nervous we were because of Vojta. Trainer Karel was counting on loosing Vojta's leading in pentathlon. But Vojta exceeded. Last cast with great power was his third longest cast ever. Looked as a change to win.
Spinning distance was finally the only event we had only two casters from Jihlava in final round. And still a big fight. Jarda and Vojta with "all or nothing". That was why sometimes plug started with unreal power fell out of sector, as wind went from left to right direction. Both guys were challenging who would cast with bigger power. That was why the only Vojta and Jarda got over 60 meters. Jihlava was happy, Vojta got 2 meters longer cast than Jarda. But Karel and Břeťa were most thrilled persons on court while looking at the fight between boys.
With stealthy way Václav of Kdyně placed 3rd position. Boy that we had seen and West Bohemia territorial round of Zlatá udice for first time, surprised us already with his final round nomination at fly distance. In spinning distance he casted out twice but one cast was in the sector and got Václav to 3rd position. Unfortunately he moved Adam to 4th place.
End of competition could not be more iconic than final round of spinning distance in boys U18 category. Jan of Litovel and Ondřej of Kroměříž were fighting for first place with casts 66 and 67 meters and finally Jakub of Kdyně was the winner that did beat everyone with cast around 75 meters and won for the organizers. Ondřej got bronze medal for Moravian Angling Union.
The fight was over. Time to go to camp, to have a bath, to count nomination for world championship of U18, get dressed and move to hall where the closing ceremony was prepared.
Jihlava sat with other people of Moravian Angling Union and wait for starting the ceremony. Finally Jirka and Zuzana had some time to spend it with team although Zuzana was travelling between Jihlava and Ostrava guys.
Mostly medals for event are given at the court and only pentathlon and teams are gloried at evening but that time some events were gloried too.
We got the result right before the ceremony so we looked into them and checked the final results.
Honza was 10th. Was counting with better position but distance event were not good. But anyway he got over 300 points and left 8 other casters behind him. Petr got 6th place. Very happy that he got over 350 points for second time. A little bit sad that he needed only 0.5 point for 5th place. Adam got 4th place. It would be better with better skish but this is the way of caster. Also about only 0.5 point for bronze medal. We will train more for getting at least 0.5 point more...
Vojta was great. Both with Jarda got over 430 points and Vojta was the better one having 5 points more. Vojta won gold medal in pentathlon. Jihlava was waiting for it a long time - 11 years. Matěj of Kroměříž added bronze medal for Moravian Angling Union. Casters of this union placed 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th place. Incredible.
Teams competition was thrilling. Moravian-Silesian district was leading for a long time and finally it was 2nd and could be happy that Vojta did not cast fly skish as expected because between Moravian-Silesian district was only 2 point above Moravian Angling Union.
West Bohemia district won leading by 25 points.
But organizers did not prepare ceremony only for casters.
They also appreciated the work of the all judges that had come from whole country and had spent two days with all competitors. So at podium the judges from west, north and south of Bohemia and also from south and north of Moravia were standing together and got presents for remembering that special day.
At the end of ceremony Mr. Václav Váchal, big man of West Bohemia district casting, educating and training fishing and casting youth for many and many decades of his life, got special price. Standing ovation for a long time was seen during the event.
Lot of food was prepared for all people after ceremony. Perfect work of organizers, we had not seen such a huge banquet for a long time.
During the banquet Karel was walking around with plan to buy something to drink while he saw Anička making photo of Jirka and Jan. Got an idea and came to have the photo with them. As Natálka saw that, came too. "Of course, You all can come" Jan said. Most of people around took it seriously.
What a nice end of this great story.
... or not. Going on...
Moravian Angling Union got 17 individual medals and 1 team medal.
Jihlava got 11 of the individual medals and one caster was a member of team.
Moravian Angling Union got 6 gold medals.
Jihlava got 5 of them.
From the 6 gold medals from boys U15 Jihlava casters got 5 of them.
Petr got into 3 finals.
Fly skish - 4th place.
Fly distance - 4th place.
Spinning skish - 6th place.
Pentathlon - 6th place.
Jan got into 2 finals.
Spinning arenberg - winner.
Spinning skish - 3rd place.
Medal in each final.
Pentathlon - 10th place.
Adam had two competition in a row. Got into all finals.
Fly skish - 2nd place.
Fly distance - 5th place.
Spinning arenberg - 3rd place.
Spinning skish - winner.
Spinning distance - 4th place.
... and bronze medal for multi skish.
Pentathlon - 4th place.
Vojta also had two competitions in a row. Got into all finals.
Fly skish - 6th place.
Fly distance - winner.
Spinning arenberg - 2nd place.
Spinning skish - 2nd place.
Spinning distance - winner.
... and got bronze medal for team competition.
Pentathlon - winner.
We could not get such results without support of Jirka.
He was most time with Adam and for all the great result Jirka is responsible.
Thanks to advice by Zuzka Vojta could prepared himself for last event that brought him the 1st place in pentathlon.
Thanks to her too.