Countdown
The four Czech Patrons of the IAAF Continental Cup Ostrava 2018 have already become familiar faces promoting the competition in their home country and their involvement has also extended to providing exhibits for the IAAF Heritage World / Continental Cup – 1977 To 2018 – Exhibition.
The exhibition in the Forum Nova Karolina Shopping Centre in the city of Ostrava will open on Tuesday (5 June) and run until the last day of the IAAF Continental Cup Ostrava 2018 on 9 September.
Team Asia-Pacific Patron Barbora Spotakova is a strong candidate for the greatest ever woman to throw the javelin and she has loaned the white-and-black vest which she wore at the IAAF World Athletics Final Stuttgart 2008, where she sent her implement out to a world record distance of 72.28m, a mark which still stands almost 10 years later.
Spotakova won at the last edition of the IAAF Continental Cup in Marrakech four years ago and had she not been happily expecting the birth of a child, one of her targets for the season would surely have been to pull on a European team vest again and compete in front of her home crowd.
Three-time world indoor 400m champion Pavel Maslak is the Team Africa Patron. He has sifted through his collection of personal memorabilia and provided the IAAF Heritage Exhibition with the spikes he used en route to his third world indoor title at the IAAF World Indoor Championships Birmingham 2018 just a few months ago.
Team Americas Patron Jan Kudlicka missed out on being a member of the European team at the last IAAF Continental Cup after having to settle for third place in the pole vault at the 2014 European Championships, with only the first two representing the continent.
However, he went one better at the 2016 European Championships and the spikes and vest that helped win earn the silver medal on that occasion will adorn the exhibition.
Like her compatriots, high jump prodigy Michaela Hruba hopes to be competing in Ostrava in three months’ time. Regardless, the Team Europe Patron will be on hand to cheer her continental counterparts.
The spikes in which Hruba won at the IAAF World U20 Championships Bydgoszcz 2016 will be on display at the exhibition.
The IAAF Heritage World / Continental Cup - 1977 To 2018 - Exhibition is kindly supported by the International Athletics Foundation, ASICS, Seiko, TDK and Mondo and is delivered by IAAF Heritage along with the Czech Athletics Federation and the LOC of the IAAF Continental Cup Ostrava 2018. We thank the Forum Nova Karolina Shopping Centre for their generous assistance in hosting the exhibition.
