Luke Traynor wants to defend the European record of Mattoni České Budějovice Half Marathon

Posted by: Watch Athletics

The EuroHeroes Challenge series continues in the south of Bohemia with the second race Mattoni České Budějovice Half Marathon. Elite field representing ten European countries promises exciting battle for tomorrow’s event.

The RunCzech initiative aimed to support European athletes – EuroHeroes project – enters this season with great expectations and a new format offering four events and a special extra bonus for the best three men and women. Two best results out of four will be counted according to the special ranking system.

“We want to raise European athletes to a higher level. This is the second race of the EuroHeroes Challenge, so after it we will know better the positions of various athletes in the ranking, ” said Václav Skřivánek, the RunCzech race director, at today's press conference.

The first race was dominated by the Italian Yassine Rachik in the new Mattoni Karlovy Vary Half Marathon European event record. The organizers increased the competition in České Budějovice by bringing Luke Traynor to the start field. The young British athlete has a better personal maximum than Rachik, and he wants to defend last year's victory and keep the event record. "There will be a need for someone to run with me at a fast pace,” Traynor said.

The winner among women from last year’s edition, Lilia Fisikovici from Moldova, also came to defend her victory, but this time she will have a very capable rival Volga Mazuronak from Belarus. “I'm looking forward to the race tomorrow. I won here last year. Tomorrow I want to run under 1:10:45. I will stick to Ukrainian colleagues and I believe it will be a great race, ” she said. Fisikovici takes the RunCzech project EuroHeroes very seriously and has joined other races to keep its lead until the final race in Ústí nad Labem. "Winning EuroHeroes is a great motivation for me, so I will definitely race in Olomouc in fourteen days," added Lilia.

There will be also elite Czech runners like Jiří Homoláč, Vít Pavlišta or Peter Pechek. Among women Petra Pastorová, Ivana Sekyrová or Kristýna Dvořáková.

The Mattoni České Budějovice Half Marathon will start on Saturday at 7 pm and will be broadcast live on iVysílání.cz and on ČT Sport channel from 6.50 pm. The race weekend also includes dm family run, which starts at 5 pm and will welcome other 3,200 participants.

The other two EuroHeroes Challenge races are Mattoni Olomouc Half Marathon (June 15) and the Mattoni Ústí nad Labem Half Marathon (September 21).



Elite field

Men | Record

  • Luke Traynor | (GBR) | 1:01:57
  • Yassine Rachik | (ITA) | 1:02:18
  • Jaume Leiva Beato | (ESP) | 1:02:29
  • Roman Romanenko | (UKR) | 1:03:22
  • Jiří Homoláč | (CZE) | 1:03:23
  • Paul Pollock | (IRL) | 1:02:10
  • Igor Olefirenko | (UKR) | 1:03:36
  • David Flynn | (IRL) | 1:04:32
  • Mykola Iukhymchuk | (UKR) | 1:02:28
  • Stepan Hendtke | (GER) | 1:06:28
  • Vít Pavlišta | (CZE) | 1:05:09
  • David Vaš | (CZE) | 1:07:43
  • Petr Pechek | (CZE) | 1:06:33
  • Jan Kohut | (CZE) | 1:06:18
  • Martin Edlman | (CZE) | 1:08:45
  • Tomáš Edlman | (CZE) | 1:09:26
  • Jiří Csirik | (CZE) | 1:09:54
  • Milan Janoušek | (CZE) | 1:09:53

Women | Record
  • Lilia Fisikovici | (MDA) | 1:10:45
  • Volha Mazuronak | (BLR) | 1:10:57
  • Viktoriya Kaljuzhna | (UKR) | 1:11:05
  • Giovanna Epis | (ITA) | 1:12:27
  • Darya Mykhailova | (UKR) | 1:12:28
  • Olga Skrypak | (UKR) | 1:13:48
  • Olha Kotovska | (UKR) | 1:12:19
  • Yulia Schmatenko | (UKR) | 1:11:22
  • Kristýna Dvořáková | (CZE) | 1:16:55
  • Sarah Giomi | (ITA) | 1:17:10
  • Petra Pastorová | (CZE) | 1:10:10
  • Radka Hanzlová | (CZE) | 1:17:16
  • Ivana Sekyrová | (CZE) | 1:14:06


The ladder of EuroHeroes Challenge before Mattoni České Budějovice Half Marathon

Top 5 men | Points
  • Yassine Rachik | (GBR) | 1110
  • Roman Romaněnko | (UKR) | 1084
  • Mykola Iukhymchuk | (UKR) | 1079
  • Paul Pollock | (IRL) | 1073
  • Kostat Ghelaouzos | (GRE) | 1047

Top 5 women | Points
  • Lilia Fisikovici | (MLD) | 1129
  • Olha Kotovska | (UKR) | 1094
  • Viktoria Kalyuzhna | (UKR) | 1090
  • Olga Skrypak | (UKR) | 1070
  • Dagmara Hanzlik | (CYP) | 1024
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