CZECH REPUBLIC – Czech Republic may be easily overlooked on the map. However, this ‘Heart of Europe’ certainly does not drop behind in size of its sports spirit – for instance, the Czechs fought their way into the recent IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship semi-finals this May, together with the USA, Canada and Russia.
A Team consisting of 241 people is going to represent the Czech Republic at the 28th Summer Universiade, from 3 to 14 July in Gwangju, Korea, 186 of them are student-athletes. That is 101 men and 85 women, participating as teams or individuals in 18 different sports, including women’s soccer, basketball, swimming or judo. Some of the coaches have revealed, what their training methods and expectations from the Universiade are.
As for team sports, the Czech Republic is competing in women’s basketball, women’s soccer, men’s volleyball, men’s baseball and handball, which is covered by both sexes.
“We started to train for the Universiade in early June by an intense sports camp. We’re off to China for two tournaments on June 19, then we’re going to Korea right away from there”, women’s basketball team coach Milan Veverka explained.
The volleyball players also started their training in June. “We don’t have the best line-up, but we were still able to reach the top 10 every time. We even made it to the 4th place this one time, missing the podium by only a lack of luck. I hope we’ll manage to make it to the top ten again this time”, is what coach Zdeněk Melichárek revealed.
Young athletes are going to represent their country in athletics, golf, judo, archery, swimming, gymnastics, shooting, table tennis, tennis, taekwondo and rowing.
The Czech swimmers are well represented: 10 athletes. “Two of our best competitors are two very close rivals, Simona Baumanová and Bára Závadová. Bára now holds the crown for the official best local swimmer. Both girls have achieved several medals from European level championships. We expect nothing else but reaching the finals from these two, any medal would be just an icing on the cake, really. As for the men, let me mention Pavel Janeček, with two broken Czech records up his sleeve, or butterfly stroke swimmer Jan Šefl”, coach Markéta Kaplanová mentioned. “Besides the Universiade, all swimmers are also up for the FINA World Championship, held only a month later in Kazan, Russia. We are going to train for these two highlights of the season in Barcelona and Calella, where the local aquatic centre is going to be our training ground for 14 days. The whole training programme will end back in Barcelona by holding a test race event.”
Judo coach Jaromír Lauer revealed, that before the Universiade, the Czech judokas are attending the European Games in Baku. Best of them are then flying straight to Gwangju. “We’re going to be a large group. Lukáš Krpálek, current World Champion, who came back to his country with two gold medals from the last Universiade, is going to participate this year as well. With these two gold medals, we brought back two more bronze ones along with reaching the 9th place in teams. We hope our team is in for a fight for the top positions once again.”
Jiří Svoboda explained what the national tennis team is up to. “We have two male contestants, Filip Doležel and David Šimůnek, and two girls, Eva Routarová and Diana Šumová. It looks like they’re all going to play singles, doubles and mixed doubles. They have individual training programmes. Some of them are attending league matches abroad to keep their shape. It’s not going to be easy to succeed, but I believe we might have a shot in doubles and mixed doubles.”
Jan Dostál, coach of the only fencer Richard Pokorný, has revealed that before the Universiade, Pokorný is attending the European Games in Baku and the World Championship right after. “Richard is a four time Junior World Champion, I hope he continues his progress in Gwangju.”
National table tennis is going to be represented by a girl quartet, guided by coach Petr Nedoma. They’re facing individual and team competitions.
Lucie Hrdlickova (CZE), FISU Young Reporter