Running News Daily

The 9th edition of Mattoni Karlovy Vary Half Marathon is Around the Corner

The Mattoni Karlovy Vary Half Marathon is approaching. This Saturday, May 21, starts one of the most beautiful Czech races! 

For several years now, RunCzech has been organizing an international race in Karlovy Vary, which attracts professional athletes and enthusiasts runners.

The 9th edition of the Mattoni 1/2 Marathon Karlovy Vary will start from Nábřeží Osvobození at 6:00 p.m. Since registrations are still free, don’t hesitate and sign up today!

“RunCzech offers to runners a truly unique sports experience. Karlovy Vary, along with ten other European spa towns, is now inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List and the Mattoni Karlovy Vary Half Marathon is certainly one of the best ways to fully enjoy the heritage of a beautiful spa town,” said Igor Murko, manager of the RunCzech regional races.

The marathon will feature several categories on Saturday. In addition to the 1/2 Marathon, a 2Run is prepared for runners who do not yet feel completely ready for the whole race.

The first competitor runs 10 km and the second then finishes 11 km to the distance of the half Marathon. The relay race is ideal alternative for team runners. Of course, the traditional dm family run which will start at 4 p.m, is prepared for all family members.

The undemanding 3 km long course in the center of Karlovy Vary is really suitable for everybody.

The first steps of the competitors always lead to the Hotel Thermal where runners can pick up the start numbers. The Running Expo starts on Friday 20.5. (12:00 – 18:00) and will last until Saturday between 10:00 and 15:00.

To pick up the start number, you need your ID and an assigned start number from the RunCzech application, which runners will also find in the Runners ID profile.

Yassine Rachik won the Mattoni Karlovy Vary Half Marathon clocking 1:02:59

Prestigious  victory in the Mattoni Karlovy Vary Half Marathon, in the Czech Republic, with Yassine Rachik who established herself in 1:02:59, three weeks from 2:08:05 in the London marathon, the fourth Italian ever and best national result in the last thirteen years.

The 25-year-old, registered for the Athletics Casone Noceto, won clearly at the end of a race conducted for more than half in solitary, clearly detaching the Ukrainians Roman Romanenko, defending champion, second in 1:04:39, and Mykola Iukhymchuk, third in 1:04:58.

For Yassine this is his fourth career performance on the half, with the PB stopped at 1:02:13 obtained in 2017 in Agropoli.

"I'm really happy for what I managed to do. I thought I wasn't doing too well after the marathon, but instead I had a good time running around feeling. I found myself in the lead from the seventh kilometer, with a stretch, then I tried to go on by myself and I didn't lose anything on the rhythm ”, the words of the blue.

In the women's field the victory of the Moldovan Lilia Fisikovici in 1:12:34 on the Ukrainian Olha Kotovska, second in 1:14:32, and Viktoria Kalyuzhna, third in 1:14:45.

Yassine Rachik is ready to take on the Mattoni Karlovy Vary Half Marathon after an amazing performance in London

Yassine Rachik ran 2:08:05 at the London marathon which is best result of an Italian in the last thirteen years.  He will be on the staring line Saturday May 18 at the Mattoni Karlovy Vary Half Marathon in the Czech Republic.

The Atletica Casone Noceto runner has chosen to run this half marathon, which will start in the unusual afternoon time of 6.00 pm. For the 25-year-old from Bergamo, an all-European challenge in the first stage of the "EuroHeroes" project which aims to highlight the continent's athletes.

Other elite runners in the field include the Ukrainian Roman Romanenko, winner of the last edition, and the Spanish El Hassan Oubaddi. 

This season, Rachik, who won the bronze medal at the Berlin European Championships last summer, came close to a half marathon personal record clocking 1: 02.29 on the streets of Naples, in February, sixteen seconds off his PR time of 1:02:13 made in Agropoli in 2017 when he won the Italian title for the distance.

Yassine Rachik is a born Moroccan male Italian long-distance runner who won his country's senior national championship three times and an individual bronze medal at the 2018 European Athletics Championships. He became an Italian citizen in 2015. 

During his career he also won the gold medal with the national team in the 2018 European Athletics Championships – Men's Marathon Cup, and also at U-23 level at the 2015 European Athletics U23 Championships held in Tallinn.

Eva Vrabcova-Nyvltova is the favorite to win the Karlovy Vary Half Marathon

The sixth Mattoni Karlovy Vary Half Marathon has drawn top runners from all over Europe to the spa town. Designed to promote the development of athletics on the Old Continent, new RunCzech initiative (in cooperation with European Athletics) EuroHeroes will get underway in Karlovy Vary. Eva Vrabcová-Nývltová is the hot favorite to win the women’s race. 

She smashed the longstanding Czech half marathon record with her 1:11:01 performance at this year’s Sportisimo Prague Half Marathon. “Competing at the European Championships is my main focus for me this year, but I’m also really looking forward to running in Karlovy Vary," says Eva, who is expected to launch an assault on the Czech event record of 1:17:31 held by Ivana Sekyrová since 2013. She’s likely to face high calibre competition from Lithuanian Olympian Vaida Zusinaite.

Sekyrová will also be keen to leave her mark as will Petra Kamínková from Olomouc who has claimed victory among the Czech women for the past three years in a row. "I want to soak up the atmosphere and give it my best." Six men with personal bests under 1:04 will be on the start line. Young Spanish talent Houssam Benabbou, who recently ran a new personal best of 1:03:35, is expected to deliver a high calibre performance.  EuroHeroes is a new initiative by RunCzech to celebrate European running stars and promote active lifestyles in Europe. The initiative aims to find new sporting heroes and motivate the public to exercise.