Špotáková triumphed at the biggest domestic athletics meeting in 2007, 2012 and 2020. She will now say goodbye to the Golden Shoe.
“I want to say goodbye to my career in front of the Czech fans, to thank them for their favor and support throughout my career,” Špotáková said on the website of the athletics association. “After the very successful end of my career last year, I received thousands of positive messages from fans, that’s why I decided to try again on home soil. And if I’m healthy, I’ll also compete at the Czech Championship in Tábor,” she added to the domestic championship, which is scheduled for July 29 and 30.
In Ostrava, the forty-one-year-old world record holder will face the number two of this year’s world rankings, Japan’s Haruka Kitaguchi, the Olympic champion from Rio de Janeiro, Croatia’s Sara Kolakova, and her only defeaters from last year’s European Championship in Munich, Greece’s Elina Tzengko and Serbia’s Adriana Vilagoš. The European vice-champions from 2018, Nikola Ogrodníková and Irena Gillarová, will also perform in the javelin competition.
Špotáková announced her retirement from the world of athletics last September. She later stated that she plans to continue racing, but will no longer compete in major events. She started coaching at Dukla in Prague.
In the end, according to Juck, the Olympic champion from Tokyo Níraj Čopra will not arrive in Ostrava. The Indian javelin thrower is recovering from a muscle injury that has already forced him to miss the Hengelo and Turku meets. At the Zlatá tretra, he was also supposed to compete with Jakub Vadlejch, who finished second in Tokyo the year before.
