The Czech national championships were held last
weekend in Liberec and it was a big win weekend
for Miroslav Dvorak who won both competitions on
Saturday (large hill) and Sunday (normal hill) quite
clearly. Unfortunately, not many athletes were attending
the competitions and even with the participation
of five Polish athletes, the starting field only
consisted of 16 skiers. Promising Czech youngster
Tomas Portyk couldn't attend the championships because
he fell ill with a viral infection.
On the large hill, Dvorak jumped the furthest and
was already in the lead at the intermediate point
with 126 points and 16 second of head start on Czech
team veteran Pavel Churavy (122 p.). Tomas Vancura
claimed an intermediate third position with 117,8
points.
This intermediate result meant an easy race for
Miroslav Dvorak, who still set the fastest cross-country
time (22:43.1) and won comfortably 01:21.3 ahead
of Petr Kutal. A fierce battle was on for the second
place between Kutal, last year's titel winner Tomas
Slavik, Pavel Churavy and Ales Vodesalek.
To give all participants fair chances, all of the
athletes were equipped with the Polish roller-skis
which were considerably faster than the ones usually
used by the Czech Team. In the steep slopes of the
last corners, Churavy and Slavik had too much speed,
came off the course and crashed. Luckily nobody
sustained serious injuries in the muddy landing
and Churavy and Slavik were still able to reach
the finish line but this meant that the places two
and three went to Kutal and Vodsedalek who managed
to take the turn successfully. Polish starters Pawel
Slowiok and Szczepan Kupczak claimed ranks five
and six.
"I had a good race", new Champion Miroslav
Dvorak said on czech-ski.com. "But to give
everybody fair conditions, we had those Polish roller-skis
which go extremely fast. This year, we managed to
race the 10 km in 22 minutes on a track where we
usually use 26 to 27 minutes. A crash in the downhills
was often not too far away. Of course I was lucky
and did not have to hurry, so I was abel to control
the situation before anything happened."
On the normal hill on Sunday, Polish rising star
Szczepan Kupcaz was in the lead after the jump with
a total of 133,5 points. Tomas Vancura claimed an
intermediate second position (131,5 p.) and Petr
Kutal ranked third (127 p.). Winner Miroslav Dvorak
followed in fourth with 125 points but again, the
26-year-old set the fastest cross-country time with
22:58.2.
This time, however, he only barely managed to take
the victory from Kutal who was actually in the lead
leading up to the finish line but Dvorak overtook
him again in the last metres. Kutal finally finished
00:00.1 after Dvorak. 42.4 seconds later, Ales Vodsedalek
crossed the finish line and completed Sunday's podium.
Polish starters Kupczak and Slowiok demonstrated
their constant level of performance by claiming
ranks four and five.
