Roman Romanenko en route to his win at the Karlovy Vary Half Marathon (© Organisers)
European runners will be in the limelight at the seventh Mattoni České Budějovice Half Marathon, and IAAF Gold Label road race, on Saturday (2).
The south Bohemia race will see leading long-distance runners from ten European countries. With a personal best of 1:01:57, British runner Luke Traynor is the leading favourite to win. Ukraine's Roman Romanenko, the recent winner of the Mattoni Karlovy Vary Half Marathon is also in the field. He’ll face competition from compatriot Oleksandr Sitkovskyy, a sub-2:10 marathoner who was 12th at the 2012 Olympic Games.
The women’s race will include seven runners with Olympic experience. Names to watch include Italy’s Rosaria Console with a personal best of 1:09:34 and former steeplechase runner Sviatlana Kudzelich from Belarus. British talent Sonia Samuels, who finished seventh at last year’s Berlin marathon, will also be taking part as will Czech stars Ivana Sekyrová and Anežka Drahotová.
“We see this as our way of supporting the development of European and Czech athletics and we may just discover new talent in České Budějovice, who will later go on to find their place among the international competition,” said Carlo Capaldo, President of the RunCzech Organising Committee and Chair of IAAF Road Running Commission.
Organisers for the IAAF
