Uphill for Sweden even before the Finncamp.
Then Alhaji Jeng points out Armand Duplantis.
– It affects a lot, says the SVT expert.
Tomorrow, Friday, begins one of the year’s highlights in Swedish athletics, when it’s time for the classic Finnkampen. But Sweden hardly comes with the best possible team. The tight schedule with the European Championships, the Olympics and the Diamond League during the summer has meant that several Swedish stars have been forced to decline, including Armand Duplantis.
Pointing out Mondo
Mondo broke a new world record on Sunday and competes again on Wednesday, in the Zurich Diamond League. In addition, well-known profiles such as Andreas Kramer and Andreas Almgren stand over the competitions, and even on the women’s side, a lot of well-known names are missing. Sweden has won the last eight competitions on the women’s side and the last five on the men’s side, but the total dominance looks set to be broken this year. Finland is at home in this year’s competition, and according to tradition, the “paper championship” has now been released, where calculations predict how the fight will end.
According to it, Finland must win both on the women’s and men’s side, and Alhaji Jeng, athletics expert at SVT, now believes that the defection of, among others, Armand Duplantis plays a big role in that, and the possible outcome.
– It obviously affects a lot, a lot. We have some stars in the form of Duplantis, Almgren and Kramer with more missing. They are active who could have scored many valuable points for Sweden, says Jeng.
“That’s the charm”
Alhaji Jeng believes, however, that the lack of the Swedish stars is part of the charm, and that now is the chance for Sweden to show what a wide and good squad it really has.
– For me, Finnkampen is about the width. After all, there are those who may not be so famous, who will come in and lift themselves statistically compared to what they would actually do, and I think that is the charm – that many new abilities will present themselves, he says.
And despite the fact that Finland seems to be the big favorite in advance, Jeng believes that Sweden is not completely without a chance.
– It doesn’t look good on paper, but I think Sweden will win in the end, both the men’s and the women’s side, he says.
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