Reigning 400m European indoor and outdoor champion Pavel Maslak has symbolically been paired with the late Emil Zátopek, the long-distance legend, as the next duo of ambassadors for the Prague 2015 European Athletics Indoor Championships.
Maslak, the 2012 European Athletics Rising Star, leads a new generation of talented Czech athletes who intend to demonstrate their talent next year in Prague.
At 22, he has already broke the Czech national 400m record on several occasions and will aim to defend his European indoor title from Gothenburg in front of his home crowd.
He will try to do the same at the European Athletics Championships in Zurich over the summer, where retaining his 400m title will not be a simple task.
Zátopek is known for winning three gold medals at the Helsinki Olympic Games in 1952. He is still the only athlete to have won gold in the 5000m, 10,000m and marathon in the same Olympiad.
His training methods revolutionised long-distance running as he was an instigator of interval training and hyperventilation training, which are considered extremely harsh methods.
Helena Fibingerova, along Zátopek one of the all-time great personalities of Czech sport, introduced the duo as ambassadors as part of the 'Legends of the past, stars of the present' project.
The first duo of ambassadors to be named was composed of former shot-putter Fibingerova herself along with current shot-putter Ladislav Prasil, with more couples to be announced.
“We are glad Pavel Maslak has accepted to become the face of the European Athletics Indoor Championships, the most important event to be hosted in the Czech Republic for 37 years, when Prague hosted the European Athletics Championships back in 1978,” Fibingerová said.
“The combination with Emil Zátopek is a symbolic one, as he is an inspiration not only to Pavel but also to many sportsmen around the world,” she added.
Maslak and Prasil along with other well-known athletes will compete at the Prague Indoor meeting, a European Athletics Indoor Permit Meeting, on 25 February. It will serve as a test event for the 2015 European Athletics Indoor Championships, which will take place 6-8 March next year.