Seven years ago, I was the initiator of the Rieter athletics meet. I dare say that if I hadn't taken a decisive step in 2018 and dedicated significant personal effort in this athletic direction, perhaps tennis tournaments would still be held in Ústí nad Orlicí today, as they were between 2015 and 2018…

The athletics meet raised the bar significantly. From 2019 to 2024, athletes from 19 countries competed at the event: England, Barbados, Grenada, India, Jamaica, South Africa, Hungary, Croatia, Germany, Poland, Puerto Rico, Austria, Slovakia, Slovenia, the United States of America, Uganda, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, and the Czech Republic.

Among them were medalists from the Olympic Games, World and European Championships. Just to name a few: American sprinter Mike Rodgers, his British counterpart Richard Kilty, one of today’s top discus throwers Kristjan Čeh from Slovenia, outstanding javelin thrower Anderson Peters from Grenada, and South African javelin thrower Van Dyk.

Several Czech athletes who met similar medal-winning criteria also participated in Ústí nad Orlicí. These included javelin throwers Jakub Vadlejch and Vítězslav Veselý, still-world-record-holder Bára Špotáková, excellent hurdler Zuzana Hejnová, 400m runner Pavel Maslák, shot putter Tomáš Staněk, and javelin thrower Nikola Ogrodníková. Also featured were 400m runner Lada Vondrová, long jumper Radek Juška, hurdler Petr Svoboda, 400m runners Matěj Krsek, Patrik Šorm, and Vít Müller, sprinters Jan Veleba, Zdeněk Stromšík, Dominik Záleský, Jan Jirka, and many other Czech national team members.

With technical support from the local athletics club, I organized six successful editions of the meet.

On January 1, 2025, there was a change in the position of director at Rieter CZ Ústí nad Orlicí, which is part of the Swiss RIETER group. Even before taking office, the new director, Mr. Kubíček, informed me in a personal meeting that I would no longer be involved because he wanted his son-in-law to organize the meet instead.

I do not agree with this decision, but I respect it. I strongly reject the false information that I did not want to organize the meet or that health reasons prevented me from continuing.

In recent weeks, several managers, coaches, and athletes from both the Czech Republic and abroad have asked what happened and why I am not organizing the 2025 meet. This is my official response.

I thank everyone for their cooperation and support and sincerely hope this year’s meet will be a success.

Vladimír Vaněk
Athlete and Sports Manager