The Slovak women’s 4×400 m relay advanced to the final at the World Indoor Championships in Torun, Poland.
The quartet of Daniela Ledecká, Viktória Korbová, Martina Segečová and Emma Zapletalová took the advanced 3rd place in the first heat.
The Slovak women advanced to the evening final, which will conclude the entire program of the 21st HMS at 20:47, with a time of 3:29.87 min.
With a huge margin, they surpassed the 3:50.81 performance of the Dubnica quartet Andrea Holleyová, Lucia Mokrášová, Viktória Záhradníčková, Lucia Slaničková (Vadlejch) from February 26, 2012 in Bratislava.
In addition, the Torun time is 1.79 s better than the Slovakian historical maximum of the women’s 4×400 m open-air relay 3:31.66 of the representative four Silvia Šalgovičová, Alexandra Štuková, Alexandra Bezeková, Iveta Putalová from the start at the European Championships 2016 in Amsterdam.
VIDEO: Joy of Slovenian women and feelings after the race
The Slovak relay got off to a promising start by Ledecká, who ran into the first track in third position behind the Dutchwoman Lieke Klaverová and Políka Popowiczová-Drapalová, and from the same place handed over Korbová’s 53.01.
“For the first time in my life, I ran the opening leg of the relay, I was a little uneasy about it, but I wanted to make it as easy as possible for the girls. In the opening 200, several of us were at the same level.
I ran well and I think we didn’t lose much even in the handoff with Viki,” the most experienced of the quartet began with her assessment for the atletika.sk portal. Slovakia never won a medal at the indoor WC in the era of independence.
As expected, Korbová did not defend her position against the fast Manuel, but she maintained contact for Segečová. Segečová also performed excellently, she was even the second fastest of the Slovenian women (52.80) and sent Zapletalová close behind the Czech Republic in the last section, behind which Lada Vondrová finished.
Slovak record holder Zapletalová broke ahead of her rival before the final two hundred, although she was not enough for the leading pair with the certainty of direct progress, but she was the fastest of all the actors in the start.
They measured her 50.46 s, a time better than her Slovak record of 50.78. Concerns about her health after the canceled start in the 400 m semi-final quickly dissipated.
“I’m glad that I managed to pull off Lada. I finished as well as I could. Considering all the circumstances before the start, I ran well. We will run one more time and we have a national record,” the Sportswoman of the Year 2025 was looking forward to.
