The Emil Zátopek Run, Wormwood Scrubs Saturday 16th September 2023
When You Can’t Keep Going, Go Faster: The Emil Zátopek Run returns to London to raise money for young athletes .
Organised by Thames Valley Harriers (TVH) and the Czech Centre (CC), a charity run in the name of the brilliant Czech runner Emil Zátopek returns to West London to inspire young runners and raise funds for The Zátopek Athletic Fellowship founded to support them. Saturday 16th September 2023, 11am Wormwood Scrubs, London W12 race HQ Thames Valley Harriers clubhouse in Linford Christie Stadium.
To register for the run visit: https://entry4sports.co.uk/zatopek
The Emil Zátopek Run first took place in 2022 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Zátopek’s birth. The Czech runner, familiarly nicknamed Czech locomotive, won his first Olympic medal in the UK capital in 1948 and so it is no coincidence that The Zátopek Athletic Fellowship was set up here to ‘support and ignite the sporting and personal attributes that Zátopek represented in young, talented athletes from disadvantaged local communities’, explains Přemysl Pela, director of the Czech Centre.
Andrea Broughton, chair of Thames Valley Harriers, added: “This is a great day out for all those who would like to participate in an organised run in great surroundings. The event is family-friendly and will raise money for a great cause. TVH is delighted to support this run again in 2023.”
Last year, over £2,000 was raised for the fellowship through starting fees and further donations, and the organisers hope to surpass the sum this year. The run, which falls on Saturday 16th September, offers the choice of 5K for adults, 3K for under 13-year-olds and 2K for under 11-year-olds. The family-friendly event will culminate with a medal ceremony after the run, followed by an informal gathering and refreshments in the form of a barbeque and Czech beer at the Linford Christie Stadium.
All proceeds from the run will be donated to The Zátopek Athletic Fellowship.
About Emil Zátopek
The legendary Czech runner Emil Zátopek(1922-2000) won his first two Olympic medals in London in 1948, followed by three medals from the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki where he won gold in the 5,000 m, 10,000 m, and the marathon, breaking Olympic records in each event. To this day, Zátopek remains the only person to win these three long-distance runs at the same Olympic Games.
Besides his athletic accomplishments, Zátopek received international acclaim for his vocal public condemnation of the 1968 Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia which led to his denouncement by the Czechoslovak communist government and a controlled detention.
Zátopek’s sporting achievements and his peculiar personality inspired many writers and filmmakers to re-tell his story. (e.g. Today We Die a Little: The Rise and Fall of Emil Zatopek, Olympic Legend by British author Richard Askwith.)
In 2013 Runner’s World magazine named Zátopek the Greatest Runner of All Time.
More information about The Emil Zátopek Run can be found HERE.
For PRESS QUERIES contact Veronika Blues at blues@czechcentre.org.uk