Christian Olsson of Sweden means the triple jump (© Getty Images)
Exactly one week after acquiring - in the most emphatic way - his first World outdoor title Christian Olsson was back in his home town Göteborg. Back to the actual arena - Slottsskogsvallen - where he has done most of the training that during the last dozen years has transformed him from a tiny beginner into the foremost triple jumper in the world.
Christian could easily have been excused if he had just gone through the motions at “Göteborg Grand Prix” on this quite chilly early autumn evening, but that never was on his mind. He opened with 17.01 despite aborting the third phase landing almost vertically and then produced a huge 17.57 on his second attempt!
The intrinsic value of this performance is probably best illustrated by the fact that his winning margin over Paris No 5 Jadel Gregorio was a full metre!! Christian now has won all his twelve outdoor meets this summer with 17.50 being his average distance!
Fellow World Championship medallists Stefan Holm and Patrik Kristiansson also won their respective events in a most convincing fashion although their nominal marks - 2.28 and 5.46 - were not as impressive as Christian’s performance.
However, Stefan had a perfect record through to 2.28 on a day when Paris finalist Jamie Nieto went out at 2.24. Stefan tucked in three so tantalisingly narrow failures at 2.32 that he treated the specatators to a fourth attempt where he sailed over the bar with a big margin!
After Germans Lars Börgeling and Richard Spiegelburg both went out at 5.58, Patrik Kristiansson had the Pole Vault competition won by his opening 5.46 clearance. He therefore moved the bar directly to 5.70 - a height he had cleared in his six last competitions. Despite the chilly evening he produced three outstanding attempts - the third of which had the bar “hesitating” for a while before finally falling.
On the track the outstanding performances were provided by Robert Kronberg and Johan Wissman. Robert - just like Christian and Patrik a Göteborg native - appeared to be extra fired up after a few days ago failing to make it 8 out of 8 major championships finals this millenium. The “victim” of Robert’s adrenalin rush: American 13.32-runner Dawane Wallace who was run down in the last third of the race.
Johan - a Paris semi-finalist in the 200m - tried the 300m this time and despite the conditions and despite having no one to push him during the last two thirds of the race produced a highly impressive 32.40-clocking.
Just a couple of days after the by far the most successful world-wide championship meet for Sweden since the 1948 Olympics over 7500 spectators of course didn’t miss the opportunity to show their appreciation of their Paris medallists.
Actually the loudest roar from the stands belonged to an athlete who didn’t even compete this evening. That athlete of course was Carolina Klüft! With the Herculean task (5, 6 or maybe even 7 events!) she is facing in the traditional and highly prestigeous match between Sweden and Finland held in Helsinki on Friday and Saturday, she needed a meet off to reload her batteries.
But “Carro” still got far from any complete rest as she - just like the other three Paris medallists - was literally buried by a landslide of young autograph hunters when the meet was over. It took some thirty minutes before they were to be seen again ....
SELECTED RESULTS (athletes Swedish unless otherwise noted)
MEN
100m A (-0.1): Patrick Jarrett JAM 10.35.
300m: Johan Wissman 32.40 NB.
1500m: Willy Rotich KEN 3:42.64.
110mH (0.0): Robert Kronberg 13.64, Dawane Wallace USA 13.77.
HJ: Stefan Holm 2.28, Jamie Nieto USA & Linus Thörnblad 2.20, Oskari Frösen FIN 2.20.
PV: Patrik Kristiansson 5.46, Piotr Buciarski DEN & Richard Spiegelburg GER 5.34, Alhaji Jeng 5.34, ... Lars Börgeling GER X.
TJ: Christian Olsson 17.57w/+2.5 (17.13/+0.2), Jadel Grégorio BRA 16.57/+0.3, Femi Akinsaya GBR 16.18/+1.1, Takanori Sugibayashi JPN 16.17/+1.6, ... Kenta Bell USA X.
SP: Brad Snyder CAN 19.41.
WOMEN
300m: Ellinor Stuhrmann 37.80, Beatrice Dahlgren 37.81, Karen Shinkins IRL 38.51.
1500m: Emily Morris AUS 4:19.47.
100mH (-0.1): Susanna Kallur 13.15, Jenny Kallur 13.44.
HJ: Hanna Mikkonen FIN 1.85, Emma Green 1.83.
PV: Thorey Edda Elisdottir ISL 4.40, Linda Persson 4.16.
DT: Anna Söderberg 60.42, Shelley Newman GBR 58.96.
