Kajsa Bergqvist celebrates her 2.01m clearance in Glasgow (© Getty Images)
Sweden’s World Indoor High Jump record holder Kajsa Bergqvist has pledged to break her own stadium record when she competes at the Norwich Union International in Glasgow, Scotland, UK on 27 January 2007.
The 2005 World High Jump champion will join a strong Swedish side for the five-way international match at the Kelvin Hall, and she is ready to bounce back from her disappointment of ‘only’ striking European Championship outdoor bronze in front of her ‘home’ crowd in Gothenburg, Sweden this summer.
Bergqvist began her 2006 season at the Glasgow meeting in Kelvin Hall on 28 January clearing 2.01m, the highest ever at the venue. She has posted outdoor all-comers records in Britain in each of the last two years.
A week after her 2.01m, on 4 February 2006 in Arnstadt, Germany, the then 29-year-old Swede, the 2001 and 2003 World Indoor champion, added one centimetre to the World Indoor record mark set by Heike Henkel of Germany on 8 February 1992, nearly 14 years before.
If anything her scintillating indoor form probably made her Gothenburg miss more frustrating, and on announcing her participation in next year’s Glasgow meeting the 30-year-old confirmed that, “I can't wait to get my 2007 season underway with another outing in Glasgow. I feel I have something to prove after the disappointment of failing to win the gold medal in Gothenburg.”
“It is important to start the season with a bang at the Kelvin Hall. I set a stadium record here last year and see no reason why I can't better it this time round.”
In Glasgow, Bergqvist will be part of a truly world class Swedish team that also includes Olympic and European Triple Jump champion Christian Olsson, and the European 100m Hurdles gold medallist Susanna Kallur.
Andrew Wallace for the IAAF
