A very strong Spanish team has already announced its nomination, led by María Pérez, who two years ago decorated the European Team Race Walking Championships with a still valid world record on the 35-kilometer course, when she triumphed in the 2023 season in a time of 2:37:15.

Now we also know the male stars of the Italian team. These two countries dominated the last edition of this competition. Francesco Fortunato won the 20-kilometer race in a time of 1:18:56 in Poděbrady two years ago and, together with the bronze at the European Championships in Rome 2024, this is still one of his greatest career success.

His compatriot Massimo Stano will certainly want to follow up on his bronze from two years ago. He can boast even greater successes than Fortunato. Stano won the 20-kilometres race at the Tokyo 2021 Olympic Games and a year later dominated the 35km race at the World Championships in Eugene. He also confirmed his great form at the recent Italian 10,000m championship, where he flashed the fastest European time in history with 37:33.03. He is also the current european leader with a time from Taicang, China of 1:18:28.

However, if the track on the Spa colonnade really suits anyone, it is the Swede Perseus Karlström. He has been returning to Poděbrady almost every year for the past decade. He won three of his four medals at the European Team Race Walking Championships on this track. He took bronze here in 2017, won in the 2021 season and climbed to the silver podium two years ago. In the meantime, he also reigned supreme at the European Walking Team Championships in Alytus, Lithuania in 2019.

Karlström has also won the traditional Poděbrady Walking meeting twice, in 2020 and 2024. Now he will strive for the fifth valuable metal from the European Race Walking Team Championships in a row on his favorite track. The man who has won four medals at world championships in the past and won the last two World Race Walking Team Championships will certainly be among the main favorites this year as well.

Italy and Spain collected almost all the triumphs in Poděbrady two years ago. However, this dominance of the European walking powers was disrupted by the then 39-year-old Greek Antigoni Ntrismpioti, who won the 20-kilometer race. It was her second victory in this competition on the Poděbrady track. In the 2021 season, however, she did not find a winner in the 35-kilometer race. This year, at the age of forty-one, the former two-time European champion from Munich 2022 would attack for a third victory in a row.