Tereza Hrochová’s participation in today’s marathon race at the EC turned into a sharp dispute full of name-calling. Due to problems with refreshments, she stopped completely in the third of four circuits and only started running again after a few minutes. She saw the cause of the difficulties in the absence of her coach Vladimír Bartůňek. According to the union, her coach could have been in Munich as a personal trainer, i.e. not as a member of the expedition, but he refused this role.
Hrochová had problems at the station, which was at the seventh kilometer of each circuit. “I am them in the first round (members of the implementation team) she didn’t see at all, because they didn’t show me there, and I ran out there as the very first of all the competitors. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a drink,” the athlete was angry.
“On the second round they let it go before I could take it,” she complained.
The head coach of the runners, Jan Pernica, who was at this refreshment station, saw the situation differently. “She didn’t run at the first snack at all. She ran at the front, it was clean and she didn’t run,” he wondered.
“Kuba Holuša was in charge of her, he was ready. We were surprised that she didn’t want to refresh after about the seventh kilometer. She had the view ready there, I don’t understand at all why she didn’t run. And she ran at the second refreshment point, but she didn’t take it,” recounted Pernica.
Hrochová is used to refreshing herself by putting an ionic drink in her left hand and water in her right. She did not manage to take that during the refreshments at the fourteenth kilometer.
“She took the water, dug for it first and blew up the ionizer. For me, this was meaningless,” Pernica continued to be amazed.
“We told her that right behind the refreshment stands are the official ones where the water was. We told her to just take the ionizer, grab it to be safe and then take the water normally on the table,” described the association coach.
Hrochová’s unsuccessful refreshments had thrown her both physically and mentally. “I just felt that I wasn’t able to run as well as I needed. I didn’t have what I needed, as I’m used to, as we planned and laid out with the coach,” she was angry.
Tereza Hrochová (pink knee highs) on the marathon course at the EC in Munich | Photo: Reuters
“It just wasn’t there, and mentally it throws you off a lot. You don’t feel the way you should feel at that moment because it’s just long,” she described her mood before stopping at the 27th kilometer.
“I was having fun there with a coach from Germany, with whom we work. He consoled me. Then I went to our implementation team for some drinks. There we exchanged a few sentences, very angry on my part. They told me why I don’t run. So I got angry and went to try again,” she explained.
In the end, she finished the marathon in 23rd place, but the disappointment did not leave her. “So the race was terrible, the only problem I see is that there wasn’t a coach who could handle it. Unfortunately, they didn’t take him with them,” she got upset.
At the World Championships in July, where she finished seventeenth, she had a coach. “It was a pretty decent result there. You can see that when the coach is there, it works. If he’s not, it sucks. Sorry,” she apologized for the vulgarity.
This time, her coach Bartůněk did not make it to the expedition. “Coaches are nominated to the team first of all based on the high position of their athletes in the ranking and also according to the needs of fully securing the team. We have a quota of seventeen coaches for 50 athletes,” explained national team head coach Pavel Sluka.
Bartůněk was given the opportunity to travel to Munich as Hrochová’s personal trainer for a different type of accreditation. “He refused this accreditation and did not travel to Munich at all,” said Sluka. Václav Janoušek, another marathon runner Moira Stewart, was in this role at the EC.
Bartůněk had a problem with paying the costs of his stay in Munich, which would be 400 euros (roughly 10,000 crowns). “They offered me to pay for it, or that they would take it from Terka’s money for preparation. I don’t want that, compared to last year, Terka already received almost 100,000 less for preparation,” he claimed.
According to Pernici, neither Bartůněk nor his charges would lose any money. “That would be paid by the association. All expenses would be covered, but he would not be at the hotel with the team all the time. Like Vašek Janoušek, who accepted the role, he commuted between what was needed. The track was clear, the personal coach was of great importance here. If it really mattered to them, he would be here,” Pernica stood his ground.
“I don’t understand it, Vláďa told me personally that he doesn’t want to go. So I don’t understand the hysteria and the attacks personally and against the union,” added the head coach of the Czech runners, who is also the personal coach of marathon runner Marcela Joglová.
