Linus Thörnblad clears 2.31 in Malmo's National Indoor Champs (© Hasse Sjören)
Monday 14 February 2005Malmö, Sweden Two years ago Sweden had five World Championships medallists but from that quintet only one - Carolina Klüft - competed this weekend at the National Indoor championships in Malmö.
Due to various injuries Kajsa Bergqvist, Christian Olsson and Patrik Kristiansson had cancelled their indoor seasons completely and one week ago Stefan Holm suffered a slight hamstring pull that to his big regret forced him to abstain from going for his 9th straight title.
Of course such loss of stars is not possible to compensate for in a small nation like Sweden, but on the other hand it gives the opportunity for a new generation of younger athletes to - if they manage to rise to the occasion - make itself known to a wider audience. And luckily this is what happened in a number of events.
19-year-old Thörnblad sets High Jump Arena record
Take the men’s High Jump: Linus Thörnblad, who has not yet turned 20, of course won in the absence of the “old” guard Stefan Holm and Staffan Strand. But Linus wanted more than just the gold medal and after emphatically clearing 2.31 he had not only set a new PB, he had actually also relieved Holm of the arena record set three years ago! The 2.31 clearance probably even would have sufficed at 2.33, which would have meant a new championship record.
The men’s Pole Vault has been ruled for several years by Patrik Kristiansson and Oscar Janson, but although both of them were missing now the capacity crowd in the “Atleticum” arena were treated to a new championship record and they also saw the Swedish Indoor record getting under serious attack. Alhaji Jeng, a World Junior finalist in 2000 hampered in his progress since then by persistent injuries, raised his PB and the championship record to 5.65 and then attempted 5.76, 1 cm better than Kristiansson’s indoor best.
“Grosseto generation” picks up medals
The “new generation feeling” was very strong indeed in the Pole Vault as the other two medals went to athletes that competed at the World Juniors last summer: Jesper Fritz who was 5th in Grosseto matched his fresh PB of 5.55 and Johan Carlsson who just missed the final in Grosseto improved his to 5.43.
Also in the men’s 60m two Grosseto participants - who reached the 100m semis there despite being eligible also for the 2006 World Juniors - climbed to the podium. Acceleration specialist Daniel Persson, who finished 2nd behind Jason Gardener in Glasgow two weeks ago, once more dipped under 6.70 but was still hard chased by youngsters Per Strandquist (turns 18 this year) and Edmund Yeboah (17 later this month) who improved to 6.74 and 6.78 respectively.
European Junior mesallist Green soars to 1.91
In the women’s High Jump European Juniors bronze medallist Emma Green was the favourite but her competition almost ended before it started. In one warm-up jump Emma slipped and crashed into the upright head-first. She got a big bleeding cut in her head but after some rest and with her head covered by a bandage almost like mini-turban she did jump - better than ever! Not only did Emma clear the new PB 1.91, on two of her three attempts at 1.93 (1cm above Kajsa Bergqvist’s arena record) she was tantalizingly close to clearing.
Pre-event favourites Wissman, Kallur and Kronberg take titles
But of course several of the internationally already established athletes also performed well.
World Indoor silver medallist Johan Wissman completely dominated the 200m bringing his best this winter down to 21.05. However, Johan needs to improve further if he wants to challenge for the medals at the European Indoor Championships in this event.
World Indoor finalist Susanna Kallur won not only her speciality the hurdles (in 8.01) but also the 60m flat where her 7.30 was just one hundredth of a second off her fresh PB. Unfortunately twin sister Jenny after finishing 2nd in the flat race had to abstain from the hurdles after feeling some minor problem in her hamstring while warming up.
In the men’s hurdles World Indoors finalist Robert Kronberg had lost his two last encounters with six years younger challenger Philip Nossmy (2001 European Junior champion). But this time “the old master” had a small but decisive advantage all the way and won - by a “full” hundredth (7.67 vs 7.68) to get his 6th straight indoor title.
Mixed feelings for Kluft
And Carolina Klüft? Well, she pursued a personal “quadrathlon” with 60m and Shot Put on Saturday and 60m Hurdles and High Jump on Sunday. She didn’t win any of the events and the outcome was mixed. Carolina was happy with her new 7.40 PB in the 60m, content with the 8.34 in the hurdles and the 13.84 in the Shot Put but very disappointed with the High Jump where she ended up 4th with 1.76.
However, Carolina still didn’t express any worry as this was her first HJ competition this winter.
“I know that I am physically in good form, I just didn’t find the right rhythm and feeling today.”
Lennart Julin for the IAAF
