PRESS GUIDE ALL RUNNERS ARE BEAUTIFUL MATTONI OLOMOUC HALF MARATHON 15 JUNE 2019 OLHALF ENG MATTONI OLOMOUC HALF MARATHON PRESS GUIDE INFORMATIONS FOR JOURNALISTS MEDIA CAR Dear Sports Friends, Take advantage of an opportunity to ride in a special car which will drive ahead of the elite runners throughout the race! th Welcome to the 10 edition of the Mattoni Olomouc Half Marathon! • Unique experience • Unrivaled photographs The Press Guide, which you are holding in your hands, contains basic information for journalists about the Mattoni Olomouc • Live coverage from the course Half Marathon. You will also find a short introduction of elite athletes including intermediate times leading to breaking records. We hope you find everything you need to cover this year’s event, but please do not hesitate to ask anyone on the Reserve space in the car at the Press Centre or by calling Bohuslav Stehno at tel: +420 606 044 637. Seating is limited. Press Team, if you need anything else. PRESS TEAM live on ČT SporT Diana Rybachenko Marketing & Communication 777 746 801 [email protected] Bohuslav Stehno PR & Media 606 044 637 [email protected] Matěj Hejda PR & Media 606 044 622 [email protected] PRESS CENTRE #OLhalf The Press Center is a place where media representatives can pick up their credentials. Also, they will find there the latest information about the race, wireless Internet access, live results and live race broadcasting. #OLhalf Friday - Saturday (race day) Conference room of mayor City Hall of Olomouc, Horní Square 583 Opening hours: Friday from 11 am to 8.30 pm City Hall of Olomouc, Conference Room of mayor Saturday from 10 am to 11 pm City Hall of Olomouc, Conference Room of mayor 2 3 MATTONI OLOMOUC HALF MARATHON PRESS GUIDE RACE PROGRAM MEMORIES OF COBBLESTONES AND GLORY. Friday, 14 June 2019 OLOMOUC CELEBRATES RACE JUBILEE. Pre-Race Press Conference 11 am City Hall, city council meeting room The Olomouc half marathon is celebrating its 10th birthday. Yet it still manages to stay fresh, fun and new. It’s basically Press centre 11 am – 8:30 pm City Hall, city council meeting room old enough to be trendy, shiny and simply out of this world. We’ve taken all the good things we learned from the Moravia Sport Expo 10 am – 7 pm Flora Olomouc, pavilion A Prague events and incorporated them into an amazing course set against the backdrop of a baroque city. On 15th June Pre-race run 5 pm Flora Olomouc, in front of pavilion A we will gather on Horní náměstí for this race which was the first RunCzech event to be held outside of Prague. Saturday, 15 June 2019 Previous event years have managed to bring together the city’s residents all in one place, coming in droves to cheer Moravia Sport Expo 9 am – 4:30 pm Flora Olomouc, pavilion A runners on. This along with generous support from our partners has made it possible for us to fill this beautiful city Press center 10 am – 10:30 pm City Hall, city council meeting room with music, laughter and vitality. Olomouc has become a true running haven in the Czech Republic. Guest zone opening 4 pm Horní Square dm family run start 5 pm Horní Square Professionals, amateur runners, and those taking part in dm Family Run combined adds up to 10 thousand participants. Mattoni Olomouc Half Marathon start 7 pm Horní Square And all of them will enjoy the sporting show celebrating with us through exercise and spurring others on. We look th th Anticipated arrival of the first man 8:01 pm Horní Square forward to welcoming you to Olomouc on 14 and 15 June. Anticipated arrival of the first woman 8.09 pm Horní Square Award ceremony 8:15 pm Horní Square After-race party 8:30 pm Horní Square Award ceremony for relays 9:30 pm Horní Square, in front of gallery Caesar Finish of the race 10 pm Horní Square Title partner Institutional partners Title partner dm family run Main partners 4 5 MATTONI OLOMOUC HALF MARATHON RunCzech Running Prospective EuroHeroes is a RunCzech initiative (in cooperation with European Athletics) that was created for three reasons: To make European athletes even more competitive on the world stage. To celebrate the greatness that exists among us. And to generate a fan base for local and regional runners with the hope of inspiring a new generation to follow in their footsteps. A dream? Of course. But dreams are where reality starts. To fulfill our dream, we have designated four half marathons as EuroHeroes events. Karlovy Vary, Ceske Budejovice, Usti nad Labem and Olomouc. A cluster of races that feature only European elite athletes within full support and care by European Athletics. And that´s not all. We have prepared another surprise for the athletes. EuroHeroes Challenge. The runners’ top 2 out of 4 finishes will determine who will be honored at the end of the season as a EuroHero, with the competitive series encouraging local fans to follow every step in their quest. MATTON MATTONI Europe had its running heroes once. Emil Zátopek. Paula Radcliffe, Stefano KARLOVY VARY ČeSké budějovice Baldini. Sebastian Coe. And it will again. With EuroHeroes. HALF MARATHON HALF MARATHON 18 may 1 JUNE MATTONI MATTONI OLOMOUC ÚSTÍ NAD LABEM HALF MARATHON HALF MARATHON 15 JUNE 21 september 2015 Mary Keitany reigns supreme at the sixth Mattoni Olomouc Half Marathon OLOMOUC HALF MARATHON TIMELINE finishing with an exceptional time of 1:06:38. The Kenyan runner enhances the race record by more than two minutes, delivering her fourth best performance of that year. The race’s first year as an IAAF Gold Label race. 2010 RunCzech stretches its legs beyond the borders of Prague and holds its first half marathon outside of the capital. The first year attracts a total of 1 788 runners. An interesting turn of events happens seeing Stephen Kibet falsely crowned the winner, when 2016 in reality the true winner is Joseph Marego as the organisers learn It’s 36 degrees Celsius in the Olomouc Region. Whenever Stephen has taken a 400 m short-cut. RunCzech asks runners to tell them which was the most demanding race year, most state 2016. 2011 Race capacity doubles to meet growing demand. 2017 2012 The Moravia Sport Expo takes place for the first time while fans get to The half marathon picks up the IAAF Silver Quality Label. watch a live broadcast of the race on ČT Sport. 2013 The half marathon reaches its capacity of 3500 runners in April already. The Family Run and the main race combined take the number of participants to a record 5000. 2018 The city is blessed with cooler weather for the first time. This is accompanied by a new and likely long-standing record among the men’s elite field. Meanwhile Eva Vrabcová-Nývltová snatches a record time among the Czech women. 2014 The race plays host to another sensation. Pacemaker to the elite field of runners, Geoffrey Ronoh ends up taking first place, leaving other Kenyan long-distance runners chasing his tail. This includes the phenomenal Wilson Kipsang – winner of highly celebrated races in Berlin, London and New York plus 2019 Dennis Kimetto – later world record holder in the marathon. The tenth event year goes down in history for introducing the EuroHeroes The sensational half marathon winner also broke the Olomouc initiative – inviting only European athletes to take part. Registrations are still record finishing there in 1:00:17. Spectators were able to follow open – make sure you’re there! the action live for the first time on Stream.cz. MATTONI OLOMOUC HALF MARATHON MATTONI OLOMOUC HALF MARATHON Description of intermediate times A RUnnER’S STORY: I WAS OVERWORKED. AnD I GOT HOOKED ON RUnnING. Using the table on this page you can calculate the times the elite athletes are running. By the intermediate times you can estimate if runners have a real chance to break the world record, the race record and/or the Czech record. I used to run when I was at high school but as I got older, I got more into cycling and running well and truly fell by the wayside. As my work commitments grew it became more and more difficult to head out on my bike after work when it was already dark. I told myself that running would be safer and more accessible. 1 5 10 15 20 21,0975 0:02:46 0:13:50 0:27:40 0:41:31 0:55:21 0:58:18 WR M When I heard the news that RunCzech was organising a race in Olomouc – where I’d been living for several years during which time I’d fallen in love with its beauty and history – I felt a new impulse to start running again. 0:02:48 0:13:59 0:27:58 0:41:57 0:55:56 0:59:00 I decided right away that I would try to take part every year. 0:02:54 0:14:02 0:28:25 0:42:50 0:57:15 0:59:49 I went into the race with a huge sense of respect and the expectation that I’d run out of steam at some point along the way. But they were just fears. I didn’t manage to get my time under two hours but the euphoria I experienced 0:02:51 0:14:13 0:28:26 0:42:40 0:56:53 1:00:00 crossing the finish was unforgettable. It instilled me with the courage to persist and set myself higher goals.