XTERRA Czech is a festival of culture, racing, live music, food, community course sessions and off-road family gatherings in and around historic Prachatice. The weekend is highlighted by the livestream of XTERRA World Cup Short Track action taking place where the format was first created.
The week is already underway in South Bohemia. Courses are open for practice, along with swim, bike, run community course sessions and yoga, before the Great Square becomes the expo entertainment hub of the weekend.
International participants, families, mixed with locals and fans will line the course, but the world is invited on Sunday to watch XTERRA Czech Short Track live and free on YouTube, with coverage beginning at 15:00 CEST / 13:00 UTC. The men start at 15:10 and the women at 16:10. Both races will also be broadcast nationwide on ČT sport, Czech Television’s premier sports channel.
Where Short Track Began
XTERRA Short Track made its debut at Křišťanovický Lake in 2019. The course keeps the athletes close, compressing the race into a 400M swim, 7.2K mountain bike and 2.2K trail run where positions can change in seconds.
Prachatice remains its home and its testing ground. Recent editions have used as many as 25 on-course cameras, later adding first-person drone shots and ground-level views that let people follow almost the entire race. This is a broadcast that catches the contact, line choices and repeated attacks that make Short Track easy to follow from the course or at home.
The XTERRA Czech team’s willingness to test new ideas has influenced other parts of XTERRA too. Reusable mesh now marks key course sections in place of single-use plastic tape, an approach carried into other major events.
World Cup Stop 6
Prachatice is the sixth of seven stops in the 2026 XTERRA World Cup and brings the eighth and ninth scoring races in an 11-race season. Saturday’s Full Distance offers up to 100 points, followed by 75 more in Sunday’s invite-only Short Track.
Michele Bonacina (ITA) leads the men with 552 points, followed by Nicolas Duré (FRA) on 511 and Arthur Forissier (FRA) on 509. Marta Menditto (ITA) leads the women with 726, with Emma Ducreux (FRA) second on 618. All five are listed to start in Prachatice.
See the Czech World Cup stop page for the start lists and weekend results, or follow the full season through the XTERRA World Cup page. Updates, photos and highlights will continue on XTERRA Europe Instagram.
From the Lake to the Great Square
XTERRA first arrived in the Czech Republic in 2002, making this the oldest active event on the circuit. The Full Distance begins with a 1.5K swim in Křišťanovický Lake, nearly 20K from the race village. Athletes then ride a point-to-point 33K course through old panel roads built for tanks in the 1960s, sections of the Golden Salt Path and fast forest singletrack before a 10.5K trail run ends on the cobblestones of Prachatice’s Great Square.
The shuttle to the distant start is part of the experience. Long-time competitor Tomáš Peter once compared it to a launch: “You feel a little bit like a NASA astronaut going for the launch of the rocket!”
The Full Distance is open to Elite, Age Group and relay teams, with 56 qualification slots available for the 2026 XTERRA World Championship.
A Youth Meeting Point
Prachatice has become one of the key XTERRA Youth Tour meetings in Europe, drawing young athletes from several countries across the Junior, Youth B and Youth A divisions.
Junior athletes aged 18-19 and Youth B athletes aged 16-17 race Saturday’s Sprint with 500M swim, 15K bike and 4K run. Youth A athletes aged 14-15 take on Sunday’s Super Sprint with a 250M swim, 6K bike and 2K run. The top five male and female finishers in each division can earn places at the 30th-anniversary XTERRA Youth World Championship in Ruidoso, New Mexico, from Oct 8-11.
Last year’s Junior winner Mila Lantelme (FRA) summed up the venue simply: “The landscape and trails are beautiful, and the MTB course was really good.” Youth B winner Václav Soula (CZE) called the course challenging, chose the bike as his favourite section and vowed to return this weekend with the same goal in mind.
Eight Children, One Journey from Japan
Among this year’s international groups is Yoshinori Arisaka, a football coach from Nagoya travelling with eight children. Four are his own, while four are members of Renato Nagoya football club and the After-School Adventure Club. The group has entries across the Full Distance, Kids Triathlon and Kids Run.
“Although it is a football club, I want to show the children a world outside football,” Arisaka said. With fewer practices and matches during Japan’s summer holiday, he saw the trip as a chance for the children to try triathlon together.
“It is a race in a new place, so I am excited,” he said. “I hope we can make friends who enjoy the same sport. I hope the children can have that kind of experience too.”
Three Days Around the Course
Friday begins in the Great Square with the Kids Run for children aged seven and under, followed by Herbi’s Trail Run 5K. The benefit run honors former XTERRA Czech team member Tomáš “Herbi” Procházka.
The expo, food festival and music program open Friday afternoon and continue Saturday. The gala dinner, awards and the long-running afterparty give everyone additional opportunities to connect throughout the festival.
Sunday returns us to Křišťanovický Lake for Kids Triathlons, the Youth A Super Sprint and gathering together to watch the best in the world take on the fast-paced XTERRA Short Track. Those watching from outside the Czech Republic can set a reminder for the free livestream.
