They all do believe that the epidemic situation after summer holiday will be favourable and the fans will have the chance to enjoy the atmosphere at Ostrava - Vítkovice city stadium on 8th September. The meeting is a part of the newly established Continental Tour Gold series and the city and region representatives expressed their hope at the press conference that there is no barrier on the way to organise the event this year.

“There were many events cancelled this year and we are glad that this is not the case of Ostrava Golden Spike meeting. We are proud that we can support one of the oldest athletic meetings in the world and I hope the situation about the corona virus is not getting worse until September and the athletes arrive,” said the Mayor of the city of Ostrava Tomáš Macura.

Similar words from the regional council president of the Moravian-Silesian region Ivo Vondrák: “We need to look for the new ways. It is impossible to lock down to escape the pandemics. That is why I am glad that we have a big chance to meet at the stadium in September and to watch great athletics.”

The meeting manager Alfons Juck then introduced the next stars of the home and world athletics who promised to compete this year. In the high jump sector, it will definitely be interesting to watch the world indoor champion from Italy Gianmarco Tamberi, who managed to get over 230 cm as the only man in the world this year. Among his opponents, there will be also actually the Czech number one Marek Bahník. His indoor PB is 225cm, and he got over 3cm less outdoors. However, he wants to improve this result at Golden Spike. “I have never competed at this meeting before and I look forward to it. With Tamberi, it is going to be a great competition and maybe, it will also help me to get even higher to improve my personal maximum,” said the high jumper from Brno.

At the main stadium, the crowds can look forward to the fight of the best world discus throwers. It was in 1996, when they had the chance to watch this event from the main tribune. There will be much to see as both last world champions promised their attendance with Daniel Stahl of Sweden (PB 71.86) and Andrius Gudzius of Lithuania (69.59). Both are capable of breaking the old meeting record by legendary Cuban thrower Luis Delis from 1983 (68.06).

Also the Dutch sprinter Dafne Schippers is looking forward to her next start in Ostrava. She won at 200m at her premiere in Ostrava two years ago, and she will test the non-traditional event 150m this time. “I have great Ostrava memories. However, I have to confess that I have never ever run 150m in competition. But I think that this distance will be good for me. And, if I break any records? This is hard to say. The track is very fast but there must me many factors coming altogether. Definitely, I will try,” she said from a distance to her fans.

The meeting program is still being created and it will be definitely published in around a month. If the epidemiological conditions do not change, there will be a place for a couple of thousand visitors (actually, the allowance is 5000 people including organisers and athletes). They will be distributed into the sectors according to the field events. As the organisers already announced before, they will have the chance to watch the competitions of top shot putters, javelin throwers, tripel jumpers, and, on the track, also the 800 or 1500m runners as well as sprinters.