The stars concluded their five-year.
During the past 5 years, the competition somewhere in Nehvizdy near Prague has become a clear stop for the world's best athletes. In the athletics calendar, we are together with metropolises such as New York, Boston, Madrid or Paris. We have a clear goal for the next few years - to keep the world tour in Nehvizdy and continue to bring you the best jumpers and throwers in the world. The demands of athletes and spectators are growing, and that is why we are preparing several changes. But we will tell you about that next time. Have something to look forward to.
The fifth year of the "stars" again brought several innovations for us organizers, which we had to ensure and implement in order to meet the conditions of the World Athletics Federation related to the organization of the WORLD INTOUR TOUR. By far the most difficult test was again caused by the "corona". A year ago I thought it couldn't get any worse. Unfortunately, I was wrong. Each federation, state or airline has different rules for the entry of athletes into our country. However, these rules were constantly changing, often even from day to day. The omicron wave hit the hardest right at the time of our meeting and affected not only a large part of the organizing team, but also a number of athletes. At Christmas, everything looked rosy - athletes wanted to join us, so the start list overflowed with the names of the best athletes from all over the world. Even the waiting list was full of famous names. But as the date of the race approached, the athletes reported their infections and quarantines to us. For example: in the evening before competition, 3 female athletes called us to say they had covid. We immediately looked for replacements and found two high jumpers from the top fifteen in the world. During the tests before entering the plane, both tested positive! Nothing to add to that. If not last year, then this year we can probably say that we have experienced almost all the difficulties in organizing such a large-scale event, at which athletes from 48 countries have already presented themselves.
This year's race offered the premiere of perhaps two of the best athletes of the future. The best jumper of all time Harrison from the USA and Korea Woo competed in Europe for the first time ever. The athletes performed incredible jumps, but unfortunately they failed to perform above 230 cm. In the evening, the athletes apologized that they were nervous about their first start in Europe and probably their inexperience also showed, because both are still very young. We believe that they will return in the coming years crowned with medals. In the end, the greatest success was achieved by an athlete from faraway Malaysia, Nauraj Randwaha, who set a national record for his country with a beautiful 227 cm. Another national record achieved in Nehvizdy!!! Additionally, it was a meeting record that he took from Nehvizdy's dearest Jamal Wilson of the Bahamas.
In the women's shot put, we could see world champion Christina Schwanitz from Germany, but she had to bow to her teammate Sara Gambetta. She sent her equipment to a distance of 18.90 m and thus got to 2. place in world ranks.
Czech Tomáš Staněk completed a hat trick in the men's shot put. The men's shot put competition was incredibly high-quality and balanced. All fighters got beyond the 20-meter mark! When we started 5 years ago, it was our dream to have someone here who throws 20 m. Now the situation is such that we don't even take anyone who throws below 20 m. We can now choose.
All of this would not have been possible without the financial support of the town of Nehvizdy, without the help of Mrs. Fibingerová or without many other partners. Of the main ones, I would like to thank CEZ Foundation, CANABA, DNA Central Europe and ZET Point, as well as Sokol Nehvizdy and CEPS. The main part of the work is done by friends and volunteers who sacrifice their time off and help day and night, because the events surrounding such an event never sleep and there is no shortage of preparations.
Such were the STARS 2022 WORLD TOUR SILVER.
We are planning the next event at the beginning of February 2023!
Tomáš Vojtek
meeting director
I was not able to evaluate the 4th year of Hvězdy v Nehvizdech for a long time after the meeting and more time passed, writing an evaluation seemed harder.
To make it more concrete ... Preparations for the 4th year of the competition, for the first time under the heading of the most prestigious category of the World Athletics Tour, began in April last year. At that time, no one would have thought about what awaits us in order preserve the tradition. One of the things was to meet all the conditions for a world athletics tour. In this area, everything (even according to the delegates) was excellent. The second, and much more difficult, task was to deal with the CORONA-19 and the measures associated with it. I don't even want to write about how complicated securing funds is at this time. Everyone who has been with us this year is a big hero to me!
But first of all, there are athletes, and we managed to transport them to Nehvizdy, truly world-class. The start list had changed several times every year and we have filled the vacancies on the run. In this respect, this year was special especially for the competition manager Jiří Jón, with whom we sent hundreds of emails a day and made a lot of calls. The start list did not change from week to week, but from hour to hour, and individual places were not filled, but entire list was replaced. The whole country had been closed, the athletes contracted elsewhere were not released by the federation or the parent club. Some athletes had their flights canceled, quarantined or directly isolated, etc., etc. For example, when we got a US team on the plane and looked forward to its participation, there was a positive contact during the transfer and there was a lot of negotiation
At a time when countries and guarded borders were closed, another "challenge" was to obtain permission to enter our territory. We were at home at the embassies and sometimes all government permits and exceptions we were able to literally "talked down". In another word - madness!
In short, until I personally welcomed the athletes, I did not believe we were sure of them. And even then, it wasn't completely won. Due to the extremely poor transit flights that the athletes had to arrive in the Czech Republic a few days earlier and some stayed for 14 days after the competition. Quite simply, it was not at all easy to get them back to their homeland. For almost a month, I was afraid that one of them would pass a positive coronavirus test. The tests were performed on some every other day, on some even daily. For each athlete, coach, staff, I had to create a folder where I kept all the records and COVID-19 test results. However, we still followed the motto of AMID, so Nehvizdy (even if only online) saw the most prestigious athletic event and the world champions, European champions. Personally, however, I am slightly disappointed with the performances. Although the starting field was full of the best athletes in the world, some of them fell short of their expectations and the expectations of others. This may be due to the fact that they were unable to prepare adequately due to various restrictions and measures. But with the passage of time, and with the coming responses and great thanks from all over the world, I am slowly calming down. Our meeting took place, but the organizers of other meetings on the world tour (such as Paris, Stockholm, New York) did not manage and their events were completely canceled. From the meeting in New York, which is the oldest and probably the best meeting in the world, we even received a request that we carry out some disciplines for them. I'll probably have this message framed!
The consent to the competition permit did not allow me to sleep ever since beggining of December. However, the recommendations of the Czech Athletic Association, the National Sports Agency, hygiene and the government were finally obtained. To sum up: so many papers were needed for the necessary documents that a good chunk of the forest must have fallen.
DNA Central Europe, which has been loyal to us since our beginnings, deserves special thanks for the successful course of the meeting. That is why the whole competition bears its name. Big thanks also belongs to Městys Nehvizdy for financial and human help (the team at the town hall consisting of Mr. Nekolný, Poběrežský, Kolář, Štěch, Glatt…., A female staff who will always be happy to advise and help me - Mrs. Kvasničková, Koucká, Prekscholová and Strnadová - that is in short, a great interplay). Many thanks to CANABA for financial and promotional help. Namely, it is no longer possible to thank everyone. The team that participates in the preparation and operation of the race already consists of more than 100 people. Nevertheless, I would like to commend the help of Sona Kubíčková, Karel Luňák and the guys from Nesprekol, Honza Jenčík, Štěpán Škorpil, the Ludwigs, technical directors Martin Mazáč, Honza Žižka, Marek Lukáš and last but not least our patroness Helena Fibingerová, to whom the meeting owes much.
In the end, I would not like to miss the first participant from Nehvisdy young Veronika Havlíčková in the main women's competition, where she shone and did not get lost among the athletes who have extensive experience from the World Championships or the Olympics.
I believe that the world will soon be normal and during the fifth year of Hvězdy v Nehvizdech, the hall will be filled with fans again in the last place. I can already promise that I will want the inclusion of the World Athletics Tour in Nehvizdy for the year 2022 as well!
Tomáš Vojtek
meeting director
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