Updated with the ČT Sport report, Sport v regionech.
On Saturday 1 March 2014, the Czech Winter Swimming Breaststroke Championships returned to Prague after last year’s successful debut. Once again our club organised the event in Podolí Swimming Stadium’s outdoor 50-metre pool. We performed to a very high standard both in the water and as organisers. Even the warmer water, around 9°C after this winter’s persistently mild weather, was no obstacle. The competition was held under the patronage of Prague Mayor RNDr. Tomáš Hudeček, Ph.D.
Czech Swimming Federation chairman Ing. Vladimír Srb also attended and opened the competition with a speech. After that and the national anthem, the action moved into the pool.
Women up to 39 were first over 750 metres. We had two representatives. Tereza Reichová repeated last year’s “potato medal” — the Czech expression for fourth place — an unlucky near miss but still an excellent result. Radka Srbová finished seventh.
Men of the same age followed. Last year we had dominated this category at both the freestyle and breaststroke championships, taking five of six possible medals. This year brought something of a retreat: we had won no freestyle medal in Brno, and predictions did not favour us in Podolí either. Tomáš Pilát firmly defied those forecasts, finishing third to take bronze.
One category higher, men’s Masters A, we hoped for a larger medal haul. Things did not start well: defending Czech champion Zdeněk Tlamicha forgot that this was a breaststroke race and began with a front-crawl stroke, disqualifying himself. But we still had the strong pairing of Leszek Naziemiec and Jakub Valníček. Leszek, last year’s Czech champion in the younger category, took gold and the title. Jakub finished immediately behind him, so after three categories our club already had a complete set of medals. Martin Ullwer and Josef Stolín supported their teammates with ninth and tenth places.
The final 750-metre race was men’s Masters B. As last year, we had no swimmer in this category.
Next came a 250-metre heat combining four categories. In women’s Masters C, Viera Hoštáková improved by one place on last year and took silver. Unfortunately, our other medal hopeful Marie Štanglová was disqualified for breaking the breaststroke rules. In men’s Masters D, Lubomír Valenta defended his silver. Michael Štěpán was third, sadly now swimming for his small club Sokol Kosmonosy, and Petr Kreuz fourth. We had no junior girl, but David Sebera raced among the junior boys, hoping to make up for last year’s disqualification. Unfortunately, exactly the same thing happened: he was disqualified from second place. Next year will be his final chance in the junior category; hopefully it will work out then.
Women’s Masters A were first over 500 metres, represented for us by Barbora Fleissigová. Unfortunately, a combination of miscounting her own lengths and other external factors led her to stop after 400 metres, so she could not be classified. We had two women both at the start and finish of the Masters B 500 metres: Alena Juřenová sixth and Eva Havlíková seventh.
Men’s Masters C also swam 500 metres, with our swimmers battling for gold and bronze. We ultimately lost both contests, but silver for Richard Haan and fourth for Vladimír Kolář were still excellent achievements.
The final category was women’s Masters D over 100 metres. The oldest competitor, Božena Černá, flew our flag proudly, following last year’s title with silver.
Although we could not repeat last year’s ten medals, one gold, five silvers and one bronze again put us second in the club medal standings. Fides Brno dominated, taking home twelve medals, including seven golds.
Medal table:
| Place | Club | 1. | 2. | 3. | Total |
| 1. | Fides Brno | 7 | 4 | 1 | 12 |
| 2. | I. PKO Praha | 1 | 5 | 1 | 7 |
| 3. | SCPA Pardubice | 1 | 0 | 3 | 4 |
| 4. | PK Zábřeh | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| 5. | Jihlavský PK | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| SK Náchod | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| 7. | KSO Plzeň | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 8. | KLM Praha | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Sokol Kosmonosy | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| Haná Prostějov | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Once again, the event formed the second round of the duathlon. For the first time, breaststroke times were combined with those from the Czech Championships in Brno. We celebrated seven duathlon medals too: gold for Jakub Valníček and Richard Haan, silver for Leszek Naziemiec, and bronze for Tomáš Pilát, Vladimír Kolář, Lubomír Valenta and Tereza Reichová.
Thanks to our members’ dedication, a high-quality team of officials and the cooperation of Podolí pool’s management, we again staged a fine competition in an appropriate setting. Back to Podolí next year, perhaps better still.
Results:
Czech Championships: results
Czech Cup: results
Duathlon: results
Czech Television report: Sport v regionech
TV Metropol report