He went to the big event five times in a row and came back as disqualified. “But I never had a plan B, an escape route. I wanted something and I went after it with everything I had,” he says.
Only in 2016 did the first procedures reach the final, a year later a world medal. “I see myself as a mountaineer who climbs an eight-thousander, gradually from the base camp to the individual high-altitude camps,” he compares.
Photo: Michal Kamaryt, CTK
The best Czech athlete of 2022 Jakub VadlejchPhoto: Michal KamarytCTK
On his way up, he can already tick off medals from the World, European and Olympic championships, as well as the 90-meter mark from this year. “But I keep telling myself that I’m not quite at the top yet, I believe that one day I’ll look at the top,” they don’t hide their desire for big gold.
However, he can watch with his own eyes the role models who managed to reach the aforementioned peak throughout their careers. Now his coach Jan Železný, previously as a training colleague Barbora Špotáková.
“In 2006, when I was fifteen, coach Rudolf Černý spotted me at the races. And when I came to Dukla for the first time, I looked at where I found myself,” he marvels, even with years of distance.
“I trained for many years on a cinder block field, with all kinds of spears. There I took a carbon spear in my hand and saw Bára Špotáková. I guess I liked myself in training, I was suitable as a sparring match for Báře, and the result can be seen even now,” he says.
Vadlejch also experienced a successful year in his personal life, however, his daughter Emma was born, so now he has to balance family and sport. “In this, I have a completely perfect woman who knows what it means to train professionally, because she was a professional athlete herself,” she owes to her partner Lucia, a former Slovak all-rounder.
“I don’t get up in the wee hours of the night, but when we wake up, I try to be as helpful as possible. When she was very little, I didn’t take her to the training camp, but this year we will change that and they will accompany me,” he says happily.
However, he also learned from the world record holder Barbora Špotáková that life is not just athletics and that it is good to have a break. “I adore the mountains, when it’s good after the season, we go out and walk as much as we can,” he says.
In addition, coffee is a passion of both Vadlejch and his wife. “One part of our apartment looks like a small cafe, maybe some cafes don’t even have such equipment,” he smiles. Is he tempted to open his own cafe one day? Where did he drink the best coffee and how much can he drink before the race? He also talked about it in the Mixzóna podcast.
