Kallur twins - Jenny and Susanna - battle it out with Mariya Koroteyeva in Gothenburg (© Hasse Sjögren)
Gothenburg, SwedenThe "Göteborg Grand Prix" meet yesterday evening Tuesday (14) was held not at the Ullevi Stadium but at the venerable and idyllic Slottsskogsvallen. An arena that has hosted several World records including such memorable historical moments as the first sub-14:00 for 5000m (Gunder Hägg 1942) and the first sub-3:50 for the mile (John Walker 1975).
Photo-finish decision for Kallur
No World records this sunny although still chilly June evening but there were other highlights like a thrilling hurdles dual between Olympic number 4 Mariya Koroteyeva and European Indoor champion Susanna Kallur and a successful revisit of the middle distances by Australian 5000m ace Craig Mottram.
The hurdles race was close from start to finish. Kallur had a slight advantage in the middle of the race but Koroteyeva fought back in the end creating what looked like a dead heat finish: The photo-finish analysis showed that the formal victory margin for Kallur of one hundreth – 12.98 vs 12.99 – in reality was just three thousandths!
In the men's 1500m, Mottram was content to follow first the pacesetter for two laps and then the pace cut out by Briton Nick McCormick. But in the final hundred metres Mottram's strength prevailed and he won by almost a full second in 3:36.68.
The times listed might seem fairly mediocre nominally but the chilly headwind the runners had to face in the finishing straight was much more troublesome than the plain numbers – e.g. just -0.6 in the 100m hurdles – formally recorded by the wind gauge.
A reasonable estimate is that the sprinters lost some two tenths compared to "decent" conditions: Robert Kronberg's impressive win in the men's sprint Hurdles by almost three metres over Allan Scott and Shaun Bownes certainly was no "mere" 13.71-effort.
In this perspective Sofiane Labidi's 45.51 over the flat 400 metres and Mikael Jakobsson's 49.47 over the 400m Hurdles also grow in significance. Jakobsson left experienced Briton Matt Douglas over half a second behind.
A ‘light’ evening of just two events for for Klüft
Carolina Klüft was one of the main names in the start lists, but this day she limited herself to just two events: The second leg on the 4x100m and the High Jump. In the relay she teamed up with Emma Rienas and the Kallur twins and they secured a World Championships berth by a NR-threatening 43.95 despite running "all alone" after Carolina's storming second leg broke the race open.
The High Jump provided typical "non-combined-event"-jumping from Carolina who had one miss at 1.76, two at 1.80 and one at 1.86 before missing thrice at 1.89. She did defeat Russian Olga Kaliturina but still did not win, as 20-years-old Emma Green improved her PB to 1.93 moving to No 4 on the Swedish all-time list.
The altogether eleven new Swedish best marks for the year – i.e. Patrik Kristiansson's 5.60 in the Pole Vault or Daniel Arnsten's 7.79 in the Long Jump after improving his PB in everyone of his five legal efforts - were well appreciated by the spectators. Especially as the meet served as final tune-up/selection competition for the Swedish team that will compete in the European Cup First League on homesoil in Gävle the up-coming weekend. Reportedly true summer weather will have arrived in Sweden by then…!
Lennart Julin for the IAAF
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