01. 01. 2020
Slovak senior wrestling has its season finale ahead, on Saturday, October 26, three weeks after the end of the Slovak Team League, freestyle and classic wrestlers will fight for medals at the national championship on the mats of ZK Košice 1904.
KOŠICE. The unusual autumn date of the championship, chosen by the Slovak Wrestling Federation, does not quite sit well with the coach of the home team ZK Košice 1904, Juraj Dancák. Simply because it lacks logic.
"Until now, the Slovak championship, from which the nomination for the national team was also derived, has always been in the spring. Now the championship is at the end of the year, after all the national team events, and according to our information, the next domestic championship in 2014 should be in the spring again. Only after that will the national team for the new season be formed, so logically from the point of view of the national team, this year's championship has no meaning. I see no reason why the Slovak championship was moved to the end of the year this season."
MANY NEGATIVES
However, the medals from it will have their value, and the strength and quality of individual Slovak teams are also judged by their number.
After the Slovak League, the following ranking of clubs crystallized - 1. Vihorlat Snina, 2. Dunajplavba Bratislava, 3. ZK Košice 1904, 4. ŠKP Banská Bystrica, 5. Slávia Snina, 6. Baník Prievidza. At ZK 1904 in Košice, they have mixed feelings about it...
"Because I see many negatives in the team league. As long as it is the case that foreign wrestlers come here only to help some club win the championship title, it will only harm Slovak wrestling," says Juraj Dancák, who assembled his team for each league round from his own core wrestlers.
"If it continues to go in the direction that legionnaires will be coming here, we lose the chance for the championship title. Someone just needs a strong sponsor who will bring in three or four foreign competitors, they will compete for the club in three or four matches, and that's the title... Unfortunately, it's a fact, and we can't influence it at all. It would be different if those wrestlers lived here, if they were involved in the training process, if they taught our wrestlers, if they passed on their experience to our generation of competitors, which would also raise the level of our wrestling," Juraj Dancák considers the "legionnaire league" a counterproductive competition.
IF THERE WERE EVEN DUELS
The "domestic" individual championship (classic style on Saturday from 10:00 a.m., freestyle from 1:00 p.m.) in Košice will probably not be any different.
"According to the latest news, it will probably be so, because some clubs are again reporting foreign reinforcements, which will weaken our position again. Some Russians, Ukrainians with much more experience, greater abilities than our wrestlers will come, and it will be very difficult to defeat them, so I don't even have any idea in my dreams what kind of championship it will be for us, how many medals or titles we can aim for. I would be satisfied if our wrestlers wrestled well with those legionnaires, if they were even duels," says Juraj Dancák, who will be missing several important prospects in the fire of the domestic championship.
"For example, Mišo Bodnár, who is, however, already in convalescence and strengthening after surgery, Peter Pástor, who has a six-month ban on any sports activity due to serious problems with his ear and meningitis, or Dávid Berdis, who has not been heard from at all since the junior world championships..."
But the Košice coach will also have a few medal trump cards in his hands. "For example, Dan Pálinkás, who should confirm the justification for his participation in the world championships, or Kubo Kačeňák, although due to his high weight, he probably won't make the 66 kg category, where we would like him to compete. In the 60 kg category, the junior representative Pavlík has a chance, also because Bolotňuk will go higher, in the 66 kg, and maybe also Majo Hutňan in the heaviest weight category, if he doesn't run into some Russian... But I really don't dare to predict how many medals or titles we could win."
Korzár, 23.10.2013, Bohuš Matia