Prague, Nov 11 (CTK) – Female javelin thrower Barbora Spotakova, 36, the current world champion, won the Czech Athletics Federation’s Czech Athlete of the Year poll on Saturday, and with the ninth title, she has become the most successful athlete in the poll’s history.
At the awarding ceremony, male javelin throwers Jakub Vadlejch and Petr Frydrych followed in the second and third places in the poll in which 167 athletics functionaries, coaches and journalists voted.
Their coach Jan Zelezny, former javelin champion, became the coach of the year for the fourth time, followed by Rudolf Cerny, the coach of Spotakova.
Spotakova, a double Olympic gold winner, defended her victory from 2016, which was her eighth, the biggest ever success of a Czech athlete in the poll’s history.
She owes her new victory mainly to her success in the 2017 world championship in London, which she won for the second time in her career. She also won the Diamond League.
Vadlejch, too, won the Diamond League in men’s javelin category, and he ended second at the world championship, where Frydrych won bronze.
Results:
1. Spotakova 1650 points, 3. Vadlejch 1480, 3. Frydrych (all javelin) 1093, 4. Hejnova (women 400 m hurdles) 1091, 5. Stanek (shot put) 1010, 6. Maslak (400 m) hurdles 728, 7. Holusa (1500 m) 718, 8. Helcelet (track and field) 351, 9. Juska (long jump) 347, 10. Sasinek (1500 m) 200, 11. Safrankova (women hammer) 99, 12. Hruba (women high jump) 96, 13. Svoboda (60/110 m hurdles) 92, 14. Sykora (decathlon) 64, 15. Kudlicka (pole vault) 46
Junior of the year: 1. Hruba (women high jump) 123.
Discovery of the year: 1. Malikova, 15, (women 400 m) 83.
Coach of the year: 1. Zelezny 108, 2. Cerny 36, 3. Karas 6.
