Late start for Czech Republic’s European indoor champion Svoboda

Czech hurdler Petr Svoboda will be sidelined from competitions for a few weeks following an injury during a training session in Spain on Monday.

Czech Republic’s 2011 European Athletics Indoor Championships 60m hurdles champion, Petr Svoboda will have a later start to his summer than anticipated after injuring his left foot while training in Spain on Monday.

Svoboda hurt his foot while doing hurdles training at a warm weather camp in Lanzarote.

“There is no tears, no blood clots, just fluid and swelling. Treatment could be 10 days, or two weeks; but the way things look, I think I need six weeks,” Svoboda told www.topathletics.org.

Svoboda has cancelled his first four races, including his planned summer opener on home soil at the Golden Spike meeting in Ostrava on 31 May. He hopes to be competing again by mid-June.

He was Europe’s fastest man at the 110 hurdles last year after his national records of 13.27 at the European Athletics Premium Meeting in Prague, the Josef Odlozil Memorial in June.

This year’s Prague event on 13 June is another which has sadly had to be deleted from his diary.

Svoboda was also the fastest European hurdler indoors this year, clocking 7.48 for the 60m hurdles at the Czech national championships in Prague.

He celebrated his gold medal in Paris by getting engaged to his long-time girlfriend and Czech pole vault international Jiřina Ptáčniková at the end of March. The couple have been together for eight years. “However, we are not rushing into getting married. We are not following the old rule: 'a year and a day'. We’ll start planning it when we have a bit more time,” added Svoboda.