Czech clubs dominated proceedings at the ECCC Track & Field Group B in Tampere, Finland on Saturday (26).
VSK Univerzita Brno won the men’s division with 99 points from Dutch-based Prins Hendrik Vught (90.5 points) while USK Praha were the runaway winners in the women’s competition with 114 points from Jyvaskylan Kenttaurheilijat with 88 points. All four clubs will be promoted into the top flight of the annual club competition next year.
The star performer for VSK Univerzita Brno on the track was 22-year-old Dominik Zalesky who has set PBs this year over 60m (6.62) and 100m (10.29). This wasn’t a day for record-breaking times but against strong headwinds, Zalesky took a sprint double, winning the 100m in 10.81 (-2.3) and the 200m in 21.95 (-1.2).
Jan Marcell also produced a double on the in-field with victories in both the shot put (18.19m) and discus (58.53m), beating Prins Hendrik Vught’s Erik Cadee in both events by slender margins. Cadee produced 17.92m in the shot put and 58.38m in the discus.
VSK Univerzita Brno produced nine victories across the programme but the two standout individual performances of the day came from Donald Blair-Sanford who won the 400m for Maccabi Tel Aviv by more than two seconds in 46.21 while his club-mate Dmitriy Kroytor cleared 2.20m in the high jump.
In the women’s division, USK Praha tallied ten victories across the programme for a runaway victory in the overall standings.
There were wins in the sprints from Klara Seidlova in the 100m in 11.76 and from Marcela Pirkova in the 200m in 23.71. Lucie Sekanova produced a solo 9:56.81 in the 3000m steeplechase and race walking specialist Anezka Drahotova demonstrated her versatility once again, winning the 5000m in 16:49.87 by more than one minute.
Elsewhere, 18-year-old Amalie Svabikova needed three attempts at her opening height of 4.00m in the pole vault but the teenager soon found her range, clearing 4.30m on her second attempt before three tries at 4.45m. Svabikova will return to this stadium later this summer when Tampere hosts the IAAF World U20 Championships from 10 July to 15 July.
Finnish club Jyvaskylan Kenttaurheilijat finished some way down on USK Praha in the overall standings but Nooralotta Neziri produced one of the best performances of the afternoon, winning the 100m hurdles in 13.26 ahead of USK Praha’s Lucie Koudelova in 13.91.
Serbian club AK. Crvena Zvezda just missed out on promotion in third, finishing with 79.5 points. Tamara Salaski won the 400m in 400m in 53.11, former European silver medallist Tatjana Mirkovic won the javelin with 53.60m while veteran Dragana Tomasevic won both the shot put (13.43m) and discus (56.33m).