Another start, another national record. As if it was already obvious in Emma Zapletalová’s performance. However, it is not true.
The indoor record, which the Slovak athlete set on Tuesday evening at the race in Ostrava, exhausted her so much that she had to lie on the ground for several minutes at the finish line and only then came to the journalists.
“I felt a strong headache, fortunately it has passed,” she explained to us. It happens to both male and female athletes on the smooth four hundred. It is a discipline that many consider the most demanding of all.
“In some ways, it is perhaps even more demanding than the 400-meter hurdles, but it is probably also due to the fact that it is the beginning of the season, the body will gradually get used to the load,” added the Slovak Sportswoman of the Year.
Zapletalová has now improved her Slovak maximum from Saturday, which she ran in Ghent, Belgium, by 43 hundredths. The new Slovak indoor record has a value of 51.24 s.
An excellent performance was also shown by Gabriela Gajanová, who took second place in the 800 meters and moved the Slovak indoor record by more than a second to 2:00:45 s. She also defeated the current world champion and other high-quality opponents.
“I am very happy, it was an almost perfect performance. Gabika showed again that she is no longer a shy girl from Bobrovec. She is a woman who can perform at the world level,” said Gajan’s Swiss coach Louis Heyer.
“However, as you have seen, there is still room for improvement, I am extremely looking forward to the next race,” he added.
Rival after contact with Zapletalová: It was wild
Fans who don’t follow athletics that closely might not consider second and third place in the race in Ostrava to be anything special. However, they are worth attention.
The event in the northeast of the Czech Republic is one of the most prestigious indoor meetings in the world and is part of an eight-part series together with metropolises such as New York, Boston and Madrid.
Even Emma Zapletalová admitted that she had never run the indoor 400m in such strong competition and was therefore more nervous than usual at the start.
The restlessness was also caused by the fact that the four hundred meters in the hall is an unpredictable discipline. In contrast to outdoor races, the athletes do not run the entire time in their “own” lane, but at the end of the first circuit, the athletes converge on the first lane.
This often leads to various jostles or even collisions, and Zapletalová also experienced a similar situation on Tuesday. Her opponent, with whom she was fighting for position after 200 meters, called it “wild”. Subsequently, however, she paid Zapletalová a compliment.
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