Minárik gained two golds in the Czech Championship
20. 01. 2019
Kryštof Minárik has retained the championship title! Despite his young age, he has achieved much success in the domestic races and at the Austrian Cup. We were glad to put some questions to this promising Czech snowboarder.
First of all, congratulations on your achievement! Can you describe the course of the whole weekend from your perspective?
Thank you very much for the congratulations. The first two races of the Czech Championship series in the parallel slalom took place this week. The giant slalom, which is my discipline, went on both days. I'm happy with my performance this weekend. On Saturday, everything went well, I made no mistakes. After two qualifying rounds, I qualified from first place to the tournament tree with the best sum race time. In the final, I took on Lukáš Smažák, my friend of the Flying Deer team. I defeated him in the final.
On Sunday, the race developed similarly, again I had the best sum qualifying time and I advanced to the finale and this time I had to compete with another competitor.
I enjoyed the competition. I like Dolní Morava and the organization of competitions with foreign participation and admire the awesome competitors who are my inspiration. I have great friends in our Flying Deer team.
You won the championship title in the Czech Cup in 2016 and 2017 and
now for the third time. Which of these races was the hardest for you?
I cannot say which race or victory was the hardest, I do not think about it. I always look forward to the races. My family supports me even if I get no joy. I try to learn from my mistakes and do not consider it as a failure.
The retaining of the championship title is your biggest success or do you appreciate
something more in your previous career?
I appreciate all my successes. It is great that I have been 2x Czech champion. Last year, I finished second because I missed the two-day races in Pec pod Sněžkou for participating in the floorball tournament in Sweden and thus the points were missing for victory. I was also the champion of Slovakia and won races in Austria last year and this year, I finished third. I feel that I have stronger competition in Austria, so I am happier with the victory. But I always want to enjoy it and run a good race every time.
Such results require a lot of training. How do you combine school and training and how does your summer preparations look like?
Besides snowboarding, I occupied myself with floorball races and have training three times a week, and snowboard training is in my leisure time and at the weekends. We often go to a training camp during the holidays. I'm excused from school and make up for the schoolwork in the afternoon after training. My school meets me, there are lots of kids here that do sport and the teachers tolerate it. I try to work hard in school and get good grades. In summer I practice floorball and go with my family to the mountains or on the bike, go canoeing with my dad and engage in hiking. And fitness caught my attention as well. We go to camps where we play different games and sport a lot, and I go to a skiing camp with my mom.
Who is your hero?
I admire Ester Ledecká. I am also very pleased with the training with my trainers; I like the racing style of Petr Šindelář.
What are your future goals? Will you reveal your secret dream?
My secret dream? I like mountains and snowboarding, of course, I want to win and enjoy it, as I enjoy it now.
Kryštof Minárik