.jpg "Olympic Games 2020: Matej Tóth completed the last 50 km. He didn’t want to look like a tourist")
SAPPORO. The last fifty at the Olympics and the last Matej Tóth. The Rio gold defender admitted that it was one of the toughest races he had ever completed.
He lost the chance to win a medal in the second period and has been fighting with himself ever since. In the challenging conditions in Sapporo, he was driven to the finish line mainly by the motivation to complete his last competition in his career.
The thirty-eight-year-old racer held the lead in the first half of Friday’s race, then still in the leading group, but from the 30th kilometer he started to escape. Manko grew, and when it was clear that he would not return to the large group, he knew that he was no longer fighting for a medal.
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Tóth: I felt like I wouldn’t give it
However, under no circumstances did he want to give up his final competition and until the end he fought to cross the finish line one last time.
“It was definitely one of the hardest races. At forty kilometers I felt like I wouldn’t give it unless there was the huge motivation to come to the finish line, to see it and finish it with pride. I was disappointed with the result, but it was with honor and that was the most important thing for me. I can go upside down and look everyone in the eye that I did my best, “he said. He took 14th place with a loss of 6:15 minutes to the winning Pole Tomal.
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After moving the games last year, Tóth considered whether he would continue his career and whether he would perform in Japan at all. He finally decided to cover another year of toil and was it worth it?
“Definitely yes, the preparation was excellent, both the final and the acclimatization in Japan. I still sat today, it was just my maximum. I need to look at it real, I’m already at the top of my career. under these conditions, my body had no more. “
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He saw that he was finished
After half of the race, it was the most difficult for the Slovak athlete to cope with the fact that he will not fight for medals in the last race.
“Even though I didn’t feel bad and the pace wasn’t bad, the group left too strong and I saw that I was done. I had to stay focused, not resign and fight for every second,” he said.
From that moment on, he focused only on himself and the need to persevere and reach the goal.
“I raced, but no longer with my opponents, but only with myself,” he described.
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Matej Tóth at OH 2020/2021 in Tokyo. (Author: TASR)
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“I had to motivate myself, keep up the pace that can be said to be walking and not hiking. I can’t blame myself, I didn’t have the rest and I’m leaving with honor,” he added for RTVS.
After a demanding race in the heat, Tóth became tired during the interviews in the mixing zone. At one point, the organizers approached him with a wheelchair so he could sit down. However, the Slovak representative refused.
“No, I won’t say goodbye like this,” Tóth refused, according to atletika.sk.
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The 36-year-old pedestrian has a university degree in journalism, which he studied at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Nitra. As a journalist, he would allegedly focus on the positives in his farewell.
“If I had written an article, it would have been about Mátó Tóth not doing well. But I would probably focus mainly on positive things. For example, although he did not get the coveted position in the top eight or ten, he managed the farewell with honor,” spoke for atletika.sk.
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Great emotions after the end of his career
“I thank everyone who supported me there, the coach, the physiotherapist, but also the journalists who pushed me. Not even a meter could be allowed there, I could not resign for a moment, I worked until the end,” Tótha quotes TASR.
Tóth eventually managed to manage the entire 50 km, and moments from his entire 26-year career were projected on the last hundreds of meters before the finish.
“Great emotions, I’m full of impressions and impressions. They were as strong as at the Olympic Games in Rio, maybe the European Championships in Berlin. What I’m experiencing is incomparable to everything. Yes, there is no joy of success, but the emotions are. It’s “huge gratitude and pride for those 26 years. At the same time, I’m glad it’s all over. Although I can still hardly imagine what will happen tomorrow and what will be without walking, but I’m very much looking forward to a new life,” he said.
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Matej Tóth at OH 2020/2021 in Tokyo. (Author: TASR)
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Tóth has not yet decided what his professional future will look like, whether he will stay walking or pursue another career, such as journalism. However, he was clear about the next one right at the finish.
“Now I want to be as much as possible with my grandmothers, wife and daughters, I’m really looking forward to it,” he said with tears in his eyes.
Before that, however, he will move from Sapporo to the Olympic Village in Tokyo, which he will visit for the first time since his arrival in Japan, so he wants to enjoy its atmosphere, at least for a while. The program will mainly include rest and regeneration, but possibly also a short training.
“We will go for a walk and maybe we will get mad, I will take Maťa Pupiš, this lazy Mira Úradník and we will give some challenge. But we will see if I will be okay, because at the moment I don’t even feel for a walk,” he added with a smile.
Tokyo Summer Olympics 2020/2021
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