News04 Mar 2003


Star Studded Swedish Championships

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Carolina Klüft at Swedish Indoor Championships (© Hasse Sjögren.)

Stockholm, SwedenKajsa Bergqvist, Christian Olsson, Carolina Klüft, Stefan Holm and Staffan Strand last weekend (1 & 2 March), transformed the Swedish Indoor Championships from its traditional low-key character - noticed only by the specialised athletics fans - into a major event featured prominently in all Swedish media.

In a country with a climate like Sweden the winter period has always belonged to the sports practiced on snow and ice. It has been well nigh impossible for a traditional summer sport like athletics to get any real attention, despite the fact that since the 1980’s there has been also an intense indoor season for about four winter months

Although it would be wrong to claim that the media interest and the general public love for skiing and ice hockey et cetera has diminished, indoor athletics has gradually managed to get itself noticed in the very last few years. The “simple” reason is the emergence of a new generation of Swedish athletes of true world class ability - who almost exclusively compete in events suited for indoors!

It is more or less inevitable for a top athlete in a small nation like Sweden to find there is little or no domestic opposition to push him/her to world class performances. However, the main men and women of Swedish athletics certainly didn’t disappoint the record attendance (almost 3000 spectators despite it being the winter holidays) at the Sätra Athletics Arena, just south of the capital Stockholm.

Kajsa set the standards right from the start on Saturday, 1 March. Although her last High Jump opponent (Carolina Klüft) disappeared at 1.90, Kajsa continued with 1.94, 1.97 and 2.00. Her 3rd attempt 2.00 clearance was very impressive, and the concluding three attempts at the 2.04 were much more than just symbolical. And still she complained afterwards about her technique being a little bit off!

This 2.00 marked Kajsa’s 6th straight meet this winter over that magical barrier. After the seasonal opener of “only” 1.98 in Stuttgart, she has recorded 2.00 (Neo Iraklio), 2.02 (Arnstadt), 2.03 (Stockholm), 2.02 (Birmingham), 2.00 (Liévin) and now 2.00 (Sätra)! But she is certainly not unique in demonstrating consistency at the very highest level.

Christian Olsson seems to be on in his way to building a new streak of 17m-competitions to challenge the one which was stopped at 26 in the Birmingham Energizer meet recently (21 Feb).  His results so far this winter: 17.14 (Samara), 17.15 (Glasgow), 17.24 (Gent), 17.40 (Stockholm), 16.92 (Birmingham), 17.14 (Liévin) and 17.37 (Sätra).

But what really satisfied Olsson (who on Saturday set a PB of 7.19 - for 60m!) was that he felt the smoothness coming back. Without having to resort to a major dose of will and adrenalin, he flew past the 17m marker on the five jumps he took: 17.13 - foul (well beyond 17.50!) - 17.16 - 17.11 - pass - 17.37.

“Previously this winter I have felt sluggish already after three rounds but today I had no problem finding the energy needed to make the last attempt the longest one of the day. With just two weeks to go to the World Indoors this was really an important confidence booster for me.”

While Bergqvist has won (the last) 4 out of 7 competitions this winter and Olsson has taken 5 out of 7, one of the Swedish medal hopes for Birmingham still carries a perfect record for 2003: Stefan Holm now made it 6 out of 6 and he also extended his streak of 2.31-plus to five: Because after opening at 2.26 (Umeå) Stefan has recorded 2.31 (Glasgow), 2.36 (Arnstadt), 2.31 (Stockholm), 2.34 (Banská Bystrica) and now 2.32 (Sätra)!

But while Bergqvist and Olsson didn’t feel under any competitive pressure this weekend, Holm certainly didn’t have it all his own way. That's what you expect if you have to face the reigning European Indoor Champion, i.e. Staffan Strand. Although Strand, troubled by a foot injury, has not shown the same consistency as he did last winter (or as Stefan this winter), he is always capable of pulling out big jumps when it counts.

And this prestige battle on “home turf” Strand certainly had no intention of losing eventhough he faced the jumper ranked No 1 in the world. Not surprisingly Stefan displayed the greater stability at the early heights and when Strand failed and Holm cleared 2.30 on first attempt one might have believed the battle to have been decided.

Strand saved his two remaining chances to 2.32. Both jumpers failed on first attempts but on his second, Strand not just cleared - he had centimetres to spare! Suddenly he was in the driver’s seat! Holm needed to make it on his 2nd attempts or make another height to recapture his hold on the competition. He used the first option, and if Strand had had centimetres to spare in his clearance of 2.32, it looked almost like inches between Holm and the bar!

This effectively sealed the win as the two of them agreed to finish the competition off by going for something spectacular: They bypassed 2.34 and 2.36 and asked for 2.38! At least one attempt by the winner Stefan Holm is worth categorising as having been “reasonably close”.

Carolina Klüft was the principle character of a very special ceremony when the championships were opened on Saturday. In front of the enthusiastic crowd Carolina got the final confirmation of her truly memorable 2002 when from the hands of Bengt Westerberg, President of the Swedish AA, she received the IAAF Golden plaques honouring her two World Junior Records in Heptathlon.

But Klüft didn’t get much time to “rest on her laurels” as she had chosen to prepare for the Birmingham Pentathlon by competing in the 200m (3 races), the Hurdles (2 races), the Long Jump (6 attempts) and the High Jump (15 attempts). This brought her a medal tally of one gold (Long Jump) and three silvers. It also gave her a positive feedback 'form-wise' going into the final two weeks of fine tuning and rest: Tantalisingly close to 1.90 on the 15th jump on Saturday, and finishing the weekend off by lowering her 200m indoor PB to 24.12, and pulling out a 6.47 on the very last Long Jump!

Thus, the five Swedish athletes who last year medalled at the European Championships - both indoors and outdoors - last weekend clearly proved that they are capable of challenging for medals at the upcoming World Indoor Championships. The two days of competition in Sätra indicated that - in addition to the two High Jumps, the men’s Triple Jump and the women’s Heptathlon - both Hurdle events and both Pole Vaults could also have Swedish athletes featuring prominently:

* Robert Kronberg won the men’s 60m Hurdles completely unchallenged in 7.74. Perhaps not that impressive on paper but please remember that he has reached the finals both outdoors and indoors at all (six) major championships during the previous three years!

* Susanna Kallur didn’t face any serious opposition in the women’s sprint Hurdles and thus for the first time this winter didn’t go sub-8 (8.09 heat, 8.06 final). But just like Kronberg, she is very much a competitor (undefeated this year) and something of an international championships specialist.

* Pole Vaulter Kirsten Belin was all smiles afterwards. Not because she raised her NIR by another 2 centimetres to 4.37 but because the technique finally clicked after lots of problems earlier this winter (her poles were gone for two weeks in February when “without telling anybody” they were lost in transit, flying went from Glasgow to South Africa rather than to Sweden!). Last year she became a surprise finalist both indoors and outdoors at the Europeans by being at her very best when it mattered, and the competitive situation to be faced appears to be quite similar this year.

* Patrik Kristiansson also performed well above expectations at the 2002 European championships (silver indoors, barely missing a medal outdoors). The start of his 2003 has been somewhat hesitant but in an event which seems to be extremely “tight” with numerous athletes in the 5.70-5.90 bracket he shouldn’t be discounted. However, he lost the national indoor title to Oscar Janson, who followed his 5.70 Birmingham qualifier last week, with a 5.63, plus decent attempts at a NIR height of 5.76.

In addition the Swedish team for Birmingham will include young 200m runners Johan Wissman and Johan Engberg plus 400m runner Jimisola Laursen. However, none of them have yet shown form this winter indicating that they are capable of more than maybe getting through to the second round. Last winter’s 45.59-runner Laursen, also sustained a hamstring injury that makes it questionable whether he will be able to compete at all.

But still: The lasting impression of the best Swedish Indoor Championships ever is that Birmingham in two weeks could be Sweden’s best World Indoor Championships ever, surpassing Lisbon 2001 when the extraordinary score was two gold medals (Holm, Bergqvist), one bronze (Strand) and one 4th place (Kronberg).

Lennart Julin for the IAAF

 

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