The 57th year of the P – T – S athletics meeting will start in Trnava on Wednesday 8 June but the main part of the program with the silver status of the World Athletics Continental Tour series will take place on Thursday 9 at the x-bionic® sphere sports complex in Šamorín, on which will feature more than 130 athletes from 40 countries.
“Thanks to the good work of a sports manager, spectators have something to look forward to. The importance of our event is also evidenced by the fact that the signal will go to 76 countries around the world. The P-T-S meeting will be seen by athletics fans not only in the USA, Canada, Australia, but also in Asia and Africa,” said the president of the Slovak Athletics Association (SAZ) and chairman of the organizing committee Peter Korčok at Wednesday’s press conference: “Although several of our top athletes suffer from injuries, which makes us extremely sorry, spectators can still look forward to a quality cast. I am glad that we managed to secure interesting opponents for our athletes in 15 disciplines of the main program – 8 women and 7 men. The highlight should be the women’s 5,000 m run with Ethiopian Gudaf Tsegay, who can attack her personal record of 14: 13.32, which is the fifth best time in the world in history. According to the weather forecast, the temperature should be lower on Thursday, around 20 ° C, which would be favourable conditions for the runners. We believe that they will use it and we will get a very good performance.”
Tsegay, who received her start number from the chairman of the organizing committee Petr Korčok and the director of P-T-S Vladimír Gubrický in front of the lenses of the photojournalists and sphere in x-bionic® sphere today, is in shape. On 28 May, she ran 1500 m clocking 3:54.21.at the Diamond League in Eugene.
Slovaks will also have a large number of participants. There will be 23 athletes starting in the main program. One of them is the talented hurdler and sprinter Viktória Forster. “I am very much looking forward to tomorrow’s races. I couldn’t sleep yesterday because my legs were running out of my head at night. I am glad that after a long time I will compete in front of the domestic audience. There will be spectators in Šamorín so I look forward to the atmosphere they will create for us. I’m going to enjoy it and give my best performances,” said Slovak athlete coached by Katarína Adlerová, who will present herself in both main disciplines (100 m, 100 m hurdles) in the main program.
The Forster’s opponent in hundred meters will be Michelle-Lee Ahye, who has already run under eleven seconds three times in 2022 – the best 10.94. The representative of Trinidad and Tobago could therefore also consider attacking the meeting record (10.98).
“I really like Šamorín, I found a great environment here. I’m not focusing on a specific time, for me it’s also a start to the P-T-S in preparation for the World Championship in Eugene or the Commonwealth Games. I want to run fast. We’ll see what happens. I don’t want to promise anything, but the record of the event is in my ability,” said the 30-year-old Ahye, who also revealed the recipe of her consistency for so many years in the sprint. “It’s important to be healthy, do the right things in training, relax a lot and sleep.”
One of the stars of the legendary meeting will be the reigning world javelin throw champion Anderson Peters from Grenada, who will defend his victory from last year (82.81 m). He came to Šamorín in great shape, when at the opening event of the prestigious Diamond League moved his personal maximum to 93.07 m and ranked fifth in the historical world tables. He also crossed the 90 m mark on Monday at the meeting in the Dutch Hengelo (90.75). It is a great assumption that it can jeopardize the stadium record of the Czech Jakub Vadlejch from 2018 (88.94).
“At the mentioned meetings, I was provoked to these performances by other rivals – Jakub Vadlejch of the Czech Republic, resp. German thrower Florian Weber. I believe that I will be able to throw over 90 m on Thursday as well. We will see what the conditions will be. I will do my best to deliver maximum performance. If it was only an inch more than in Doha, we would all be satisfied,” said Peters. “I am glad I managed to finally overcome the 90 meters barrier this year and I would also take such a performance on the P-T-S. However, I will be satisfied even if I throw more than 85 meters at least three times.”