Sablikova's triumph boosts Czech oval hopes (News Feature)

By Katerina Zachovalova Feb 25, 2010, 12:52 GMT

Prague - Twelve years ago, Czech speed skating coach, Petr Novak, amused sports reporters with his claim that he will rear a two-time Olympic gold medallist.

Despite little state support, he made good on his word on Wednesday when five-time world champion Martina Sablikova grabbed her second gold at the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games.

Winning two golds and one bronze, the 22-year-old ranked the games' second most successful athlete together with Norwegian cross- country skier Marit Bjoergen.

When the slender Czech speed skater crashed from exhaustion on the track's side after her victorious 5,000-metre ride, fans at home expressed renewed hope that the Czech Republic would finally get its first artificial-ice long-track oval.

'Let's cheer to the oval's construction,' a jubilant Czech television sports presenter said, raising a glass of champagne minutes after her triumph.

As the Czech Republic does not have a single artificial-ice track for speed skaters competing on the long track, Sablikova has long practiced on frozen lakes and refined her skating technique, sliding in woollen socks on a wooden board.

After her initial near-medal results at the Turin Olympics four years ago, a 2,000-head village of Velky Osek, 60 kilometres east of Prague, offered to host an ice skating stadium with the long-track oval that would cater to an array of sports.

Sablikova and her coach Novak backed the plan and moved to adjacent, identical orange-facaded homes in Velky Osek.

Critics have ridiculed the project worth 1.5 billion koruny (78 million dollars) as wasteful and unprofitable, citing the fact that the country has a mere 70 registered speed skaters competing on the long track.

The oval's backers have countered that speed skating could hardly expand without it.

'It is like the debate about the chicken and the egg,' Jiri Otta, the mayor of Velky Osek, told German Press Agency dpa.

'Martina had to come, work her way up from scratch and show that speed skating exists,' he said. 'We need to emancipate this sport.'

Although the parliament has backed the project in 2008, Otta has long lost hope that the state would pitch in its cash, owing to weak and unstable governments in recent years.

'One moment we have a government and a bit later there's none. We talk to one minister and he is gone before (the next meeting),' the mayor said.

He confirmed that talks are in final stages with a private-sector investor, whose identity could be unveiled by April.

He said that he hopes for a new round of talks with state-backed sports institutions, such as the Czech Olympic Committee and the Czech Sports Association.

Speaking to reporters in Vancouver, coach Novak expressed a belief that Sablikova would practice for the 2014 Sochi Olympics on the new home-made track.

'I believe that the digging will start this year,' the CTK news agency cited him as saying. 'And if its starts, then I believe it will happen.'