The Story of Jan Došla They sent him among the vacationers. He’s beaten even Řezáč

The two were celebrating in the Finish. Stanislav Řezáč gold, Tomáš Čáslavský silver. But in few minutes everything changed. Jizerska 50, year of manufacture 1995, had probably the most surprising winner in history.

Jan Došla, then twenty-year old student from Brno, started the fifty kilometres long track from the third starting wave. He started among the amateurs, who just want to get to the finish.

And he had the same ambition, even though he was no push-over at skis: “I just wanted to finish the race, it was my first 50.

It ended, well, unexpectedly. The youth simply flew through the finish line, nobody expected him to attack the victory rostrum. The referees’ attention was suddenly raised, they called the competitor. “I had to go there and they checked, that I have all the stamps. They were given on the starting number. There were checks along the route and they slapped a stamp on the number to show we passed them,” describes the educator on Masarykova University in Brno. “The check was okay. ‘You have everything, we have to congratulate sou.’ they said.” That is how Došla became the winner.

It was a shock, literally. “The others weren’t very happy,” remembers the skier. “Especially Tomáš Čáslavský, who finished third. I actually understand it. You lead the race and then somebody overtakes you.”

“We could have started with the third wave too. Our times would be may be ten minutes faster,” reacted Řezáč and Čáslavský according to the North-Bohemian regional newspaper. “Everywhere in the world the best competitor wins from the first wave. The time from the other waves are just for illustration,” they demanded.

But Došla was the winner and nothing could change it. And it didn’t.

How did the surprise happen? Ten minutes were deduced from the times of the competitors from the third wave because of the delay at the

starting line. After the deduction Došla’s time way fifty seconds faster than Řezáč’s time.

“But I didn’t have the results to start with Standa in the first line. I really couldn’t beat these two,” admits Došla. “I was in a good shape, but all I could hope for was the sixth, seventh place,” He was in top twenty in the country, but he focused on achievements in academical competitions. But at Jizerska the nature helped him. In the morning, shortly before the start, three centimetres of snow had fallen. The organizers didn’t have time to clear the track, so the first wave have beaten it. Došla glided through it to the final – and shocking – triumph.

“It made a big difference. It was much harder for the first competitors. I found out, when I’ve hit an unbeaten track. The fresh snow was really much slower,” remembers the winner. “I had to fight for it, many people were in front of me. But after just one kilometre I caught up with the second wave. I took advantage of the conditions,” he adds honestly.

The organizers assigned him to the third wave, because he registered for the famous race at a late date. That’s why they registered him as a recreational skier. However, that is not how the educator remembers it: “The assigned the competitors to waves according to the previous years. I too the Fifty for the first time. I wrote on the application, that I race in the National Championship, but they disregarded it. I felt sorry about it...”

But it was different in the finish, the anger was gone.

“It was a shock for everyone,” he repeats the word, which describes the events the best. “For me as well.”

It was the biggest victory in his skiing career, for sure. Today, people at the stadium in Bedřichov remember it sometimes. Here, they have a plate with the names of the winners of the famous marathon. Jan Došla is among them.