Highlights from Mattoni České Budějovice Half Marathon – 2nd edition of Mattoni České Budějovice Half Marathon

The track belongs to one of the fastest in RunCzech Running League. With fantastic time of 59:49 Mattoni České Budějovice Half Marathon belongs among the top 20 fastest half-marathons of the year 2012. It was Daniel Chebii from Kenya who ran this fantastic time

·         Kenyan runners Nicholas Kamakya together with the Ethiopian Ketema Behaile are the main favourites in the starting field in the men category. Both athletes, who know how close the half-marathon in one hour, are looking forward to Mattoni České Budějovice Half Marathon challenge, which has been raised  last year by Daniel Chebii who completed the race well below the magical threshold of 60 minutes (59:49)

·         The winner of the recent Mattoni Karlovy Vary Half Marathon Daniel Wanjiru (1:01:10) and Henry Chirchir (1:01:25), both from Kenya, will definitely race a bar in competition. An intrigue in results will be brought by Moroccan athlete Hicham El Amrani and Moses Kibet from Uganda for whom the half-marathon course will be a debut.

·         The leading duet in women's category Shure Demise (1:11:03) and Hurtesa Kedija (1:12:13) from Ethiopia will be challenged by Ugandan Rebecca Cheptegei and a strong trio from Russia and Ukraine: Yulia Ruban, Eugenia Danilova and Tatyana Vilisova

·         In the Czech field, the fast race course was attracted Jan Kreisinger who currently holds the best personal record in half-marathon (1:03:42). Kreisinger originating from České Budějovice is willing to please his fans with the best performance. He will be accompanied by his personal trainer, the legendary Czech-Slovak endurance runner Róbert Štefko who, however this time does not have high sport ambitions, simply wants to enjoy the race like the other marathon runner Jan Bláha. The biggest rival for Kreisinger should be Petr Pechek (1:06:33)

·         In women category the Czech flag should be held the highest by Ivana Sekyrová (1:14:06) who, despite her busy race calendar, has reserved Saturday for the upcoming RunCzech race. Along with Ivana we will also see on the course Radka Churaňová.

·         As well as last year, a team of hockey players and football players will compete against each other in relay. For HC Mountfield will run Vráblík, Plánek, Švihálek and Přibyl. Football team Dynamo České Budějovice will represent Madouch, Čadek, Vaněk and Slavík. The battle will not be only about prestige but also about the prize. The winning team will be rewarded with Budweiser Budvar beer keg, given by Budweiser brewery.

·         Autograph signing with hockey players from České Budějovice and Filip Novák will take place after start of dm Family Run and before the main race.

·         At Mattoni České Budějovice start will be also Lukáš Mensator (hockey goal keeper), Karel Lavický (windsurfer from Olympic Games in London), Zdeněk Tůma (economist, former CNB governor), Čestmír Tschauder (Director of the School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering), Jiří Kloss (senior doctor of Radio-diagnostic Department of Hospital in Český Krumlov)

Interesting numbers:

·         The capacity of the race is 2 500 participants

·         1 000 amateur runners will take part in dm Family Run

·         32 relay teams

·         84 participants in 2RUN race

·         485 (22 %) participants will run the half marathon for the first time

·         73 % of participants are men and 27 % women

·         92 % of runners are from the Czech Republic, 8 % from abroad

·         TOP 5 foreign countries are SVK, AUT, USA, GER, GBR

·         30 nationalities in total

·         11 runners will celebrate their birthday on the race day

Company occurrence:

·         TOP 3 professions are managers, office workers and students

·         TOP 3 companies starting  at Mattoni České Budějovice Half Marathon relay:

 ČSOB, Kuboušek s.r.o., Hard Rock Man Triatlon

Interesting highlights from the start field:

·         76 years old Jaroslav Putschögl is the oldest man in the race

·         60 years old Marcela  Flosmanová is the oldest woman in the race

·         500 volunteers will help the organizing team

·         Used during the race:

o   14,000 pins

o   22,000 cups

o   14,000 sponges for refreshment

o   2,500 thermo foils

o   3,500 medals

o   3,588.5 m of fences

o   56 toilets

·         Drinks:

o   7,000 litres of Mattoni water

o   2,500 litres of isotonic drink Nutrend

·         Food:

o   964 kg of bananas

o   650 baguettes

o   14 kg of salt

o   27 kg of sugar

 Records:

Men	Women
World record:     0:58:23 (2010)                               Zersenay Tadese, ERI	World record:  1:05:50 (2011)                              Mary Jepkosgei Keitany, KEN
Race record:       0:59:49 (2012)                               Daniel Chebii, KEN	Race record:     1:10:54 (2012)                             Tadelech Bekele, KEN