Malgorzata Pazda-Pozorska (Poland)
Jacek Bedkowski (IAU):
Malgorzata can you please tell us how was your preparation for the Championship and how you see yourself in the competition on Saturday.
Malgorzata Pazda-Pozorska:
I am not so sure about my chances on Saturday but I did everything that I could to be ready for this race. All my workouts were done with 100% on my site. I didn’t race for the last 5 weeks and focused on training. It was all, long runs, intervals so I am ready.
Jacek
You had a fantastic run at IAU 24H European Championship early this year where you managed to secure bronze medal individually and gold with the team. Do you think you can do so well here at 100K.
Malgorzata
This is different race but you have to try and take your chances.
Jacek
Can you tell us how the Polish team looks like. You have 4 men and 3 women on the team.
Malgorzata
After our briefing I can share that we are all ready. There were some test runs done early this year and all of our team members did well. We are positive and have to do our best.
Andre Collet (Germany)
Jacek Bedkowski
Andre how was the preparation for the Championship.
Andre
The preparation was very good and the last 8 weeks were fantastic. I had a chance to train on different terrain and I should be ready for the race here. I look forward for Saturday race.
Jacek
Did you do any races early this year. How it was in the long term training.
Andre
It was not so good. During the Düsseldorf Marathon I got an injury and I had to stop during the race. I did not finished and this injury had as impact on my next training sessions. Finally it was all good and I could be here so I am happy.
Jacek
Your team is always doing well. Can you tell us how you see your teammate for this race.
Andre
We have very young but strong team. Since I am running for Germany I believe this is the youngest team that we have. I see a great future with them in next few years. I am not sure if we are ready today to fight for the medals but we will do our best and I hope we can be in top 5.
Sunil Chainani (India)
Jacek Bedkowski
Sunil as you are the Team Leader can you please tell us a bit more about your Team coming long way from India.
Sunil,
We are a young team in the ultrarunning and this is type of running that is new and growing in India so we are here to gain experience among the best runners from around the world. It will be great exposure and they are looking forward to running with the best athletes. It is fantastic to be here.
Jacek
Few years back you did not have that many ultrarunners now it is growing. Was it difficult to make selection for the National Team.
Sunil,
It was not as difficult as you think, we set cut of times for selections and this is how we nominates runners. However in coming years it will be more competitive and we will have more interest and candidates for the Team. Runners are getting better and better and this is only good sign. Just to give you an example how fast its growing. About 3-4 year ago we had a trails race on the southern part with about 100 runners now we will have more than a thousand.
Jacek
You were present for the first time at IAU 24H WC, than IAU Trail WC now IAU 100 km WC. Is this the path that you will follow. You want to make your presents on major IAU events including upcoming continental IAU 24H Championship.
Sunil
Yes, we would like to see more and more runners, get experience and exposure to international level. To learn and see how much we have to improve to world standards. We are not there yet but we will try to improve. It is inspiring to be among the best in the world.
Jacek
It is great that we are having you and your team here as we are one ultra family so all the best for the race on Saturday.
Tomas Molnar (Hungary)
Jacek Bedkowski
Tomas can you share with us how is your Team doing and what is your prediction for the Saturday race.
Tomas
We are 3 men and 3 women in our Team. This is just the minimum to have full team in the competition and unfortunately this is not the strongest team. I have to say that Spartathlon is very popular in Hungary and we not easy job to gather all the best runners. The World Championship is on the same month and this is why we cannot have all our runners here. However for us it is important to be here and this is why we do our best to have a team. We have few athletes that do both 24H and 100 km so they are not as fast as typical 100k runners but they will do as much as they can. I believe we have middle pack team for men.
Jacek
How strong are you ladies. Will you be able to fight for medals.
Tomas
They look good especially Terezia. I think all of them can run similar race and perform well but I am not sure if they can fight for medals. I think sub 8h is possible but we have to wait till Saturday.
Jose Daniel Vaz Cabral (Cape Verde)
Jacek
Jose how did you get where you are now. How was your training for the Championship.
Jose
It was a long journey for 6 months. It was a hard work for me but I am here and this is great. I manage to run good race in Italy on similar hilly course (100 km del Passatore) so If I can make sun 7:30 it will be great.
Jacek
How many team mates is with you here in Croatia.
Jose
We are 4 runners here so we will run for both individual and team standing. We are not as strong as other teams but everything is possible so we keep finger-crossed and we will fight for best places. If we are lucky we might get even in medal position. We are only men here but for next championship we might bring some ladies as well.
In the end the most important is to complete the race so we do our best to represent our country.
Jacek Bedkowski
Chair of the IAU Communication Committee
