“During the war, in 1944 and 1945, we used to attend school in the neighbouring village. We could not go to school in Břeclav, so we would go to Moravská Nová Ves; there was a big town school there. From our house all the way to the railway station Hrušky-Zastávka, it was exactly one kilometre. We would run it in 10 minutes, then in 8, then 7. I remember that once we managed to run the distances in 5 minutes, carrying our bags and wearing school clothes.“
“When I finished high school, I took the entrance exams to study for a vet in Brno. They received a report saying that I could not be offered a study place because I would follow the behavior of my father. It was written in there that my father had national-socialist opinions and was giving preference to the private farmer over those who had already joined the coops. And that there were no guarantees that the son would behave differently. They indicated that I as well would favor the individual farmers over those in the coop.“
“There were two athletes competing for the US and two for the Soviet Union back then. The race took place at the main stadium in Moscow. The organizers would increase the number of the competitors to 10. They invited me because in the world rankings, I was number four back then. And so I ended up running with them. The Americans and the Russians were keeping track of each other throughout the race. And in the last 300 hundred meters, I run away from them and won the race. It was a major success. The race was called the Znamensky Brothers Memorial.“
Bohumír Zháňal was born on 17 October 1931 in the family of a veterinary in Moravský Žižkov, Southern Moravia. In 1932, he moved with his parents to the neighbouring village called Hrušky. Since his childhood, he took part in a Sokol sports unit, played football and trained running. Following the February 1948 Communists putsch, his father was arrested and investigated for unduly favoring private farmers. Because of a negative background assessment relating to his father, he was not accepted to study for a veterinary. He was forced to join the Technical Auxiliary Battalions, a special military unit for people with bad cadre profile. Nevertheless, due to his sports successes, after six months he was allowed to study physical education and geography in Brno. He moved to Zlín and joined the Czechoslovak national athletics team. During an international competition in Moscow in 1959 he won the three kilometers hurdle race, defeating the American as well as Soviet runners. He managed to beat the Czechoslovak record twice, competed at the European Championship twice and in 1960, he took part in the Rome Olympics. He concluded his professional athletic carrier in 1963. Hereafter, he chaired the Department of Physical Education at the university in Zlín.
