The world record of Armand “Mondo” Duplantis (6.28 m) set in Stockholm is the perfect invitation. The current Ostrava Golden Spike record stands at 6.12 m—no further explanation needed. Duplantis will be joined by his Greek teammate Emmanouil Karalis and the impressive Australian Kurtis Marschall.

Indian star Neeraj Chopra will come to Ostrava after his Diamond League race in Paris, and his coach, Jan Železný, believes he will arrive in excellent form and spirits. Two-time World Champion and Olympic bronze medalist Anderson Peters from Grenada will be a strong competitor. Olympic gold medalist from Rio 2016, Thomas Röhler, will also be in the mix.

Femke Bol will debut in the 400m hurdles this year, and it won’t be easy. She will face silver and bronze medalists from the Paris Olympics: Natalia Bukowiecka (formerly Kaczmarek) from Poland and Salwa Eid Naser from Bahrain.

American Grant Holloway promises an exciting hurdles showdown—he’s expected to challenge the 13.00-second mark. His main challenger will be his fellow American, Dylan Beard, with a personal best of 13.10 seconds.

Superstar Gout Gout from Australia will kick off his professional European career in Ostrava, competing in the 200m. He will face the winner of the last two Diamond League meetings in Oslo and Stockholm, Cuba's Reynier Mena.

Other highlights of the 2025 Golden Spike include Tomáš Staněk, who will compete in the shot put against strong Italian opponents. Leonardo Fabbri leads the world rankings with a throw of 22.31m, and Zane Weir has already thrown 21.84m this year.

In the high jump, Jan Štefela will face tough competition, including 2017 World Champion Donald Thomas and top Italians Marco Fassinotti and Stefano Sottili.

 

 

Amálie Švábíková will face Slovenian rival Tina Šutej, a medalist from both European and World Indoor Championships, in the pole vault.

Karolína Maňasová will have her "baptism of fire" in the 100m, racing against legendary Marie-Josée Ta Lou-Smith from the Ivory Coast (PB 10.72s) and American Cambree Sturgis (PB 10.74s).

In the women’s javelin, Olympic champion Haruka Kitaguči and the current world leader, Serbia's Adriana Vilagoš, will challenge the Czech top athletes.

 

 

On the short hurdles, world record holder Tobi Amusan from Nigeria will attempt to break the meeting record (12.42s).

Middle-distance races will celebrate the beauty of running with exciting attempts to break meeting records in top-level competition.

Athletes will also benefit from the newly renovated track surface. "The renovation was realized and financed by the City of Ostrava through its company VÍTKOVICE ARÉNA, a.s., the stadium's owner, in cooperation with SPORT Construction a.s. as the contractor. The renovation costs, or 'retopping,' of nearly 9,000 square meters of the athletic track and technical sectors amounted to more than 11 million CZK," said Ostrava Mayor Jan Dohnal.

The Golden Spike will also honor the incredible careers of Vítězslav Veselý and Pavel Maslák and will officially welcome the new mother, Nikol Ogrodníková.

The accompanying programme including fan zone, autograph sessions, catering zone and children's races starts at 14:30. At 18:00 the fan zone closes and the main part of the event starts, which ends at 20:00. Fans will of course also be able to watch the triathlon live on ČT Sport from 15:00 until 20:00.

The regional rounds of the Čokoládová tretra, a traditional competition for young athletes, are also heading toward their grand finale at the Ostrava stadium. Over 5,000 children have participated in the tours so far in 2025. The last regional round will take place in Ostrava on Thursday, June 19.