Bechovice 10k
Plaque name: Bechovice 10k
Location: Městská část Praha – Běchovice Českobrodská 3 , 190 11 Praha 9 – Běchovice
Plaque awarded: 03/10/2020
Reason: Plaque Category - Competition
The race from Běchovice to Prague is the oldest uninterrupted footrace in Europe. 120 years of its existence were not interrupted by two world wars. The Běchovice to Prague race is a real gem of the history of Czech athletics.
The first edition took place on 27 May 1897. The organisers and founders of the race, Jan Hrazdíra and Josef Hlavsa, set the start at three o'clock in the afternoon. Eight competitors were registered for the start and the winner of that historic first Běchovice race was Jakub Wolf in 39:03.
The record number of starters was 3552 runners in 1982. In the last twenty years the number of athletes has stabilised between 1000 to 1200 per year. 2016 was a turning point with the number of participants, 2764.
The king of Běchovice by the number of victories is clearly Róbert Štefko, who managed to dominate the race a total of seven times, during 18 years. The most success by a woman is Petra Kamínková (formerly Drajzajtlová), who won a total of 11 titles.