Barbora Špotáková and Anderson Peters

The javelin competitions will be the cherry at the cake of the Golden Spike. The organizers are pleased that world record holder Barbora Špotáková will have the second start of the season here (after opener in Turnov on May 24). She is also a meet record holder. Her duel with Nikola Ogrodníková and Olympic silver medalist Maria Andrejczyk should be one of the highlights of the meeting. Andrejczyk improved to 71.40 last year. "There is a new athletic season here and with it another year of the Golden Spike, which I am very much looking forward to. There will be very strong domestic and foreign competitors, I do not want to be left behind. I'm looking forward to recieve great support from the audience, "Spotakova said.

In the men's competition, the start of the season was marked by the sensational Doha winner Anderson Peters from Grenada, who reached 93.09 in Qatar, the fifth place in history. His duel with Vadlejch and Vetter with Vesely will also be the ultimate meeting experience. In addition, the Olympic winner from London, Keshorn Walcott from Trinidad and Tobago, will compete.

Yohan Blake + Jerome Blake

Sprinters with the surname Blake are currently seen in the World of sprinting, two of them will arrive to Ostrava. The legendary Yohan from Jamaica will run the 100 m. He is the second man in history behind Bolt in terms of personal records 9.69 and 19.26. He also has two gold and two silver medals at the Olympics and is the 100m world champion. His younger namesake Jerome Blake is from Canada (but Jamaican origin) and has silver from the Tokyo Olympics in the 4x100 m relay. This year Jerome has already improved to 10.00 and 20.04.

Lamecha Girma

The silver medalist from the Tokyo Olympics Lamecha Girma will be the headliner of the 3000 m steeplechase. On Friday, at the opening meeting of DL, he finished second by a hundred in 8.09.67. He is also silver medalist at World Championships 2019 and at World Indoor Championships 2022 in the flat 3000m. His Ethiopian record is 8: 01.36. A whole lot of other participants will attack the standards for the World Championships and European Championships, as well as the new Czech generation of runners (Foller, Vích, Kovář).

Already announced

Gianmarco Tamberi, Johannes Vetter, Miltiadis Tentoglou, Joe Kovacs, Tom Walsh, Femke Bol, Megan Tapper and Tina Šutej have already been announced. World fastest sprinter Ferdinand Omanyala from Kenya and 800m´s stars Patryk Dobek, Nijel Amos and Amel Tuka. The Czech top, Jakub Vadlejch, Vítězslav Veselý, Nikol Ogrodníková, Radek Juška, Tomáš Staněk,  Amálie Švábíková and others.

Ticket sales

Advance ticket sales continue and the organizers and the best athletes in the world are looking forward to the full stands on May 31 from 5 pm. We can be curious how many world champions will stand at the start of the Golden Spike in Ostrava, when in 2021 13 later Olympic medalists competed. As in 2021, all performances can be watched by spectators in 140 countries around the world, where the television signal travels.

Chocolate Spike

In addition to working on the details of the Golden Spike Ostrava and finalizing its preparations, the basic rounds of the Chocolate Spike are already running in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Zdeněk Stromšík took part in the role of ambassador in Vyškov, Jiří Mužík in Blansko, Matúš Bubeník, Olympic high jumper in Olomouc, and Šárka Kašpárková in Břeclav.

This week was Chocolate Spike in Třinec (16.5.) and in upcoming days it will be in Havířov (23.5.) and Ostrava (26.5.). Also basic rounds in Slovakia 16.5. in Košice, 19.5. in Žiar nad Hronom and Slovak finals 23.5. in Košice.

You can find the full program of individual rounds at www.cokoladovatretra.cz.