Saturday´s 52nd meeting Pravda – Televízia – Slovnaft is for sure behind us. The complex x-bionic sphere in Samorin saw many good sport performances. The strong wind was a problem, but not even that prevented all fans from seeing their favourite athletes performing. Time has come to evaluate and nobody is more suitable than the director of the organising committee Peter Korcok,
“From the point of view of the organiser, we did everything for this meeting to end up well. We could have seen a lot of satisfied spectators and sportspeople. The weather was not ideal, but similarly last year it had not been ideal. I believe that 53rd meeting will have a better weather conditions. From the point of view of sport´s quality, meeting suffered a little bit, but the performances were good in these conditions,” started his evaluation former Slovak athlete in walk and currently President of the Slovak Athletic Federation.
“I saw positives in the organisation of P-T-S for children, it was an interconnection with youth. There was a lot of joy and euphoria from sport and youngsters could see in the afternoon their sport models. It is a pity that the biggest star Matej Toth could not came, but it could have been seen that Jan Volko inspires a lot of people and is our next athletic star and substituted Matej in this,” thinks Peter Korcok and continues: “We had a lot of important guests and legends here, Sergej Bubka, Svein Arne Hanses and Jozef Pribilinec came. From the point of view of diplomacy in sport, member of the IOC Danka Bartekova and a lot of people from other sports. I highly appreciate that people who do other sports came to see the athletics.”
The impressions of important guests are always very important. “The President of European Athletics, Mr. Hansen has already told us what we could organise here. He liked how we organised it and appreciated the complex x-bionic sphere. We are discussing what Slovak athletics could do, when we manage European Cross-Country Championships and European Throwing Cup in 2019. Sergej Bubka is here for the second time and feels here like at home. From their side, the impressions are positive,” said Peter Korcok.
Which discipline did capture the attention of meeting director the most? “I think that from the point of view of casting and performances was the best men´s 800 metres. I liked it the most. I perceived that when Slovak is fighting for the highest positions, it is what interest Slovak spectators the most. As President of the Slovak Athletic Federation I had my personal expectations that somebody may come close to limits for a top event, but it was influenced by the weather. Iveta Putalova, Alex Bezekova and others showed progress. The weather probably also destroyed plans of Jan Volko. I think that if conditions are good in Tel Aviv at the European Athletics Team Championships, a lot of our athletes will show what is really in them,” he noted.
During the last weekend in Samorin, a lot of good athletes from all over the world came to Samorin. We may logically ask if there is at least the same quality next year. “We have responses that sportspeople who were here, like Anita Wlodarczyk would like to come back, because they like it here. If there is a support from our partners, I can imagine that we would increase the quality,” added Peter Korcok.