Highlights of the Mattoni Olomouc Half Marathon

The best half marathon start field in the seven year history of the race. This will be the 7th edition of the Mattoni Olomouc Half Marathon, which will start from the Horní Square on Saturday, June 25.

On the start line will be three world’s fastest women, defenders of victory, the Czech star and thousands of excited runners. One of the most popular running races in the country will also host the popular showman Leoš Mareš and other celebrities.

Don’t miss the Mattoni Olomouc Half Marathon – you can watch it either from the streets of the Haná metropole or live broadcast at Seznam.cz!
 
Main facts

    The Mattoni Olomouc Half Marathon will be broadcast live online on Seznam.cz. The broadcast starts at 18:45, and besides performances of elite athletes, spectators can look forward to participation of Leoš Mareš or famous youtubers
    7th edition
    Mattoni Olomouc Half Marathon was the first RunCzech race held out of Prague to be awarded the IAAF Road Race Gold Label. The seven races of the RunCzech Running League have a total of seven Gold Labels, and this makes the Czech Republic the number one country in organizing road races.
    The Mattoni Olomouc Half Marathon is a part of the RunCzech Running League, which consists of seven races held in five cities of the Czech Republic. In 2015, 74 585 runners participated at the races, and this number is almost five thousands more than in 2014
    The race starts at 7 p.m. from Horní Square. The dm family run will start at the same place at 17:00
    In comparison to last year the race capacity has increased up to 6 200 runners in the main race, which makes it the second biggest half marathon in the Czech Republic
    The half marathon will be run on one lap course, which starts in the center of Olomouc. Since last year it has slightly changed (for instance, there will not be the uphill section nor the cobblestone in the center) and should be even faster.
    The Mattoni Olomouc Half Marathon will be launched by the Mayor of Olomouc Antonín Staněk
    The starter of the dm family run will be the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic Bohuslav Sobotka
    Mattoni Olomouc Half Marathon offers the world-class start field. Haná will host the race records holders, former winners and two out of three best marathon runners among women in history
    At the start line will be four women out of TOP 10 fastest half marathon times in history. Besides the defender of the last year’s victory Mary Keitany (the world’s second), there will be Violah Jepchumba (the third), Worknesh Degefa (the eighth) and Joyce Chepkirui (the ninth)
    The scent of the victory in Olomouc is also known to Betelhem Moges, who triumphed there in 2014
    Six men ran under the magic one hour limit, which is still being reached. The nearest result performed Geoffrey Ronoh in 2014, when he started the race as a pacemaker but then gloriously won. He will try to make the same also this year
    The start number 1 will be on chest of the last year’s Olomouc champion Josphat Kiptis. And the runner of the RunCzech Racing Team will try to defend the triumph
    The biggest name among men is Stanley Biwott. He has the best personal record in the start field, he also won the New York Marathon and qualified to the Kenyan marathon team for this year’s Olympic
    Among the Europeans you can look forward to the participant of the London Olympics, Ukranian Vitaly Shafar
    The favourite amongst the Czech men is Pavel Dymák. His biggest rival will Robert Míč; spectators can also look forward to performance of David Vaš or ultra-marathoners Daniel Orálek   

The Czech woman favourite is obvious. It is currently the local number one Eva Vrabcová, who is preparing to the European Athletics Championships which will take place in Amsterdam in July and the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro to be held in August. On the start line will also be Petra Kamínková, the winner of the recent half marathons in Karlovy Vary and České Budějovice
    Out of the four regional RunCzech races, the Mattoni Olomouc Half Marathon has the best women time (Mary Keitany ran 1:06:38 in 2015)   

Besides the elite athletes, celebrities will appear at the start line. The biggest start of the race will be the popular showman Leoš Mareš, who will have a half marathon debut. Again on the start will be Internet TV stars Jan Tuna and Jakub Bína known as Jacob. The half marathon distance will be conquered by the sport moderator Vojtěch Bernatský and blind runner Ondřej Zmeškal. At discussion in Moravia Sport Expo and dam family run will be handicap sportsmen Albert Llovera from Andora, who finished the famous Dakar four times
    A part of the half marathon weekend are also the dm family run and Marathon Music Festival with music bands and DJs playing along the course and cheering the runners
    The mascot of the dm family run is a little cheetah Dayo from the Olomouc Zoo
    The part of the race is the Moravia Sport Expo. At the sport fair visitors can equip for the whole running season, use offers of dozens of exhibitors and enjoy an eventful accompanying program
    RunCzech cooperates with 45 charitable organizations. Last year a total of 4 620 runners generated for the Run For A Good Cause project the amount of CZK 7 279 615
    The main charitable partner in Olomouc is the Trend Wheelchair Association. They prepare a 24 hour relay to be held in the Smetana’s Gardens during the half marathon weekend.
    The biggest number of foreign runners will come from Slovakia, Poland, Germany, Kenya, Great Britain, Italy, USA, Spain, France and Austria
    In 2015, a total of 22 034 visitors have participated at the running event in Olomouc, out of whom over 11 thousands came from other regions of the Czech Republic or from abroad
    Visitors of the half marathon have spent CZK 19,8 million during the, which caused growth of local companies production for at least CZK 16,9 million
    Hotels, restaurants and other companies had to employ many new workers, which meant the creation 16,4 permanent job positions
    In Olomouc there is the Mattoni FreeRun course, a five kilometer route, which anyone can run at any time. It is located next to Flora.
    The official race hashtag is #OLhalf
    The novelty of this year’s edition is the Mama point, where runners right on the course can wave on the camera to their beloved ones

Interesting numbers

    Capacity of the Mattoni Olomouc Half Marathon is 6 200 runners
    Capacity of the dm family run is 3 300 participants
    130 four member relays (3 x 5 km + 1 x 6,0975 km)
    250 two member relays will run 2Run (1 x 10 km + 1 x 11,0975 km)
    In the start field are runners of 50 nationalities
    68 % of runners are men, 32 % are women
    The average age of women at the half marathon is 37,9 years, the average men’s age is 35,1 years
    On average women will run the Mattoni Olomouc Half Marathon in 2:05:34, men in 1:49:33
    There will be 12 men and 5 women having birthdays on the race day
    The most popular name in the start field is Petr, other popular names are Martin and Jan. Among women the biggest numbers are Jana, Petra and Lenka
    The majority of the runners have a university degree (58%), there are 34% with a high school education and 8% with a primary education
    An average runner needs to make 17 216 steps in order to reach 21,0975 km
    The oldest man is Jiří Engliš (CZE), 78 years
    The oldest woman is Eva Cupalová (CZE), 69 years
    There will be 825 volunteers helping during the race
    During the race day the website www.runczech.com will be visited by almost 30 000 visitors from all over the world (27 391 in 2015)
    During the race day almost 120 000 users (120 642 in 2015)

During the race will be used:

    416 traffic signs
    38 540 safety pins
    89 000 cups
    63 000 sponges
    6 200 thermo-foils insulation
    9 600 medals
    4 964 m fences
    118 mobile toilets

Will be drunk:

    28 922 liters of Mattoni water
    6 055 liters of hypotonic drink

Will be eaten:

    2 165 kg bananas
    1 386 kg oranges
    27 kg salt
    36 kg sugar

Records

    Race record – men: 1:00:17 (2014), Geoffrey Ronoh (KEN)
    Race record – women: 1:06:38 (2015), Mary Keitany (KEN)
    The fastest Czech man: 1:05:50 (2015), Jan Kreisinger
    The fastest Czech woman: 1:17:35 (2014), Petra Pastorová
    World record – men: 0:58:23 Zersenay Tadese (ERI), Lisabon 2010
    World record – women: 1:05:09 Florence Kiplagat (KEN), Barcelona 2015
    Czech record – men: 1:01:31 (1997), Jan Pešava
    Czech record – women: 1:11:02 (1994), Alena Peterková

Tadeáš Mahel