Update: 05/07/2024 11:28
Issued by: 05/07/2024, 11:28
Szeged (Hungary) – Four Czech women’s boats will compete in Szeged, Hungary on Wednesday and Thursday for participation in the Olympic Games in Paris. Two competitors in the individual categories and the doubles winners will advance from the European additional qualification. So far, the Czech Republic has certain places under the five rings in the men’s canoe and kayak at 1000 meters and the men’s double kayak and double canoe at 500 meters. The nominal nomination should be concluded after the World Cup in Szeged, which will follow the Olympic qualification from Friday to Sunday.
National team coach Pavel Hottmar traditionally considers the additional qualification to be extremely difficult. “It is the only spare chance for the athletes who, for many different reasons, did not succeed at last year’s World Championships in Duisburg,” he said in a recording for the media. However, he does not consider the procedure to be lost in advance. “Until the races are over, all six of our girls have a chance to win Paris. The girls have been improving in recent years, and if they show their best, and if we have sporting luck, then anything is possible,” he added.
Kayaker Anežka Paloudová will fight for the Olympic Games in the 500m, who would like to join her partner Josef Dostál in Paris. “It will be extremely difficult to succeed, because the racing field in Europe is incredibly crowded. But I think that the moment I manage to sell everything I have trained for, the chance to be in second place is there,” she said.
The thick kayak will be made up of Kateřina Zárubová and Barbora Betlachová. At first glance, the doubles Kamila Šímová and Martina Malíková have the easiest way to the Olympics, because only four boats will enter the additional qualification in this category. “The chance is exactly 25 percent. And I can say with 100 percent certainty that I have never had a better chance,” said the 24-year-old Malíková. “We will try to win in order to get to the Olympic Games. There is always a chance. Hopefully we worked hard and it will work out,” added the seventeen-year-old Šímová.
Among female canoeists, Denisa Řáhová will try to succeed in the Olympic 200m. “It will be very difficult, all the opponents are at a high level. Some of them I haven’t passed yet. I also have no idea how the opponents from Russia and Belarus will go, who were allowed to start at the Olympic Games and for a long time no one competed against them,” reflected the twenty-three-year-old Czech representative.
At last year’s world championship in Duisburg, kayaker Josef Dostál, double kayaker Jakub Špicar, Daniel Havel and canoeist Martin Fuksa won the Olympic quotas for the Czech Republic in the single and together with his brother Petr in the double. All will compete at the World Cup in Szeged and can confirm their nomination for the Olympics. “I believe that the fighters who qualified for Paris will be fine, they will be healthy and there will be no complications or surprises. The April (nomination) race in Račice showed that no one else has made such a big jump in performance since last season to have Paris has a better chance of success than our top five last year,” Hottmar commented on the situation surrounding the Olympic nomination.
