Hockey player David Pastrňák became the Czech Athlete of the Year for the first time. The 24-year-old Boston striker scored 1,253 points in the 62nd edition of the Club of Sports Journalists and defeated skier and snowboarder Ester Ledecká by 144 points. Speed skater Martina Sáblíková finished third. Among the teams, the mixed relay of biathletes won the world championship thanks to bronze.
Pastrňák finished third in the poll so far last year and was fourth two years ago. He got to the top position this year thanks to the fact that together with Alexander Ovechkin he became the best shooter of the basic part of the NHL, which was interrupted due to the coronavirus pandemic. At the same time, he improved his personal highs with 48 goals and 95 Canadian points.
The sport was significantly affected by the coronavirus pandemic this year, due to which the Summer Olympics and a number of world and European championships were postponed. Nevertheless, the tradition of the survey was preserved. However, the ceremony took place in an improvised mode and without spectators.
The representative of team sports became the winner of the survey for the first time in 15 years and since the triumph of Jaromír Jágr in 2005. The hockey player won only for the fourth time after Josef Mikoláš, Dominik Hašek and Jágr.
“Unbelievable, I could never have imagined that I could become the Athlete of the Year like them. Hockey is a collective sport after all, so individuals are viewed differently,” Pastrňák said in a BPA media report.
“It’s the most beautiful gift I could get for this Christmas. The crown is beautiful, just gorgeous. At home they made me a great Hall of Fame, so the crown will be first under the tree and then in the most important place among all the trophies and awards I’ve had in my career so far. won, “added the four-time winner of the Czech Golden Hockey poll.
Pastrňák won by 144 points, most of the first places (45), but the journalists awarded the third to the Sáblíks. This year, the 33-year-old speed skater was the only one to win gold at the World Championships in the Olympic discipline, when she triumphed on the 3,000-meter track. However, she did not add her fourth victory in Athlete of the Year. “I’m happy, every box counts. I’m extremely happy, as always, when I get into the top 10. And when it’s a box, it’s even nicer,” Sáblíková said at the ceremony on Czech Television.
In addition to Pastrňák, Ledecká also got ahead of Sáblíková, which successfully combines downhill skiing and snowboarding. Last year’s winner of the survey managed to win the World Cup race in both sports for two years in a row. It was Ledecká who would give his vote to the victorious Pastrňák.
Tomáš Souček from West Ham, England, is the best-placed footballer in fourth place since 2004. Another former winner of the poll, tennis player Petra Kvitová, finished fifth. Each of the ten finalists took first place on one of the ballots. Last year’s winner of the poll, judoka Lukáš Krpálek, did not get a point this time.
Voting between the teams was unprecedentedly balanced. For the first time in history, an auxiliary criterion was decided in favor of a mixed battalion of biathletes against the national football team – a higher number of better places. The relay consisting of Eva Puskarčíková, Markéta Davidová, Ondřej Moravec and Michal Krčmář won bronze in Anterselva in February. The footballers under the age of 21 finished third among the teams with a slight gap.
“I have been to this poll once before. Although we won gold at the time, we did not win the Athlete of the Year. I am very surprised that it was so balanced. That it was such a sword with football players. It is a great success for us,” said Moravec. .
Former football player Antonín Panenka was declared a legend, as he decided a penalty shootout in the finals of the European Championship in 1976 with a famous “dloubák”. Former gymnast, coach and falcon Zdeněk Růžička won a new award for his dedication to sports.
Journalists vote in a two-round poll. First, they select a dozen finalists, from which they then choose the winner. A total of 214 journalists voted this year. Pastrňák won a quarter of a million crowns for the triumph, the biathlon relay 100,000.
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