Sweden’s haul of three medals at the European Championships was disappointing compared to prior expectations. Considering the international match to be held at the Olympic Stadium in Helsinki, Sweden has plenty of scope at the top.
Tero Pitkämäki finished, Finland has become accustomed to the fact that two big Nordic athletics stars come from Sweden: the pole vaulter Armand Duplantis and discus thrower Daniel Ståhl. Finland has been overshadowed by the brightest stars.
However, at the European Championships in Munich last week, the parts changed, at least for a while. Of course, Duplantis was as tough as usual in the pole position, but in the medal table of the games, Finland was better than Sweden with two European championships and four medals. Sweden’s corresponding balance was one gold and three medals.
The arrangement was unique at the EC level for a long time. In the European Championships, Finland was last ahead of Sweden in the medal table in 1998. When all prestigious competitions on outdoor tracks are taken into account, the last time Finland was better than Sweden was in 2015 at the World Championships in Beijing.
Since 2017, three World Championships and one Olympic Games have been organized. During this time, Finland has not won a single global medal, while Sweden has received a total of ten medals. Duplantis, Ståhl and the race walker have been responsible for these medals Perseus Karlstrom each three times and a discus thrower Simon Pettersson once.
The brightest all-around athlete in both Sweden and Finland at the moment is a pole vaulter. The story continues after the videos
In addition to the stars mentioned above, several realistic medal favorites went to the European Championships from Sweden. Such names included, among others, long jumpers Khaddi Sagni and Thobias Montlera shot putter Fanny Roos800m runner Andreas Kramer and a 400m hurdler Carl Bengtsröm.
Out of the five, only Montler managed to squeeze himself into the three (silver). In addition, Ståhl and Pettersson did not succeed well enough either.
– This was close to a fiasco. Without Mondo (Duplantis), the result would have seemed mediocre, Wennerholm wrote in his column.
– Should be able to win more medals. There were more medal opportunities, he told SVT.
Points are also important for Sweden
In Finland, we often talk about points. The eight best athletes get points. You get eight points for first place and one point for eighth place.
Also in Sweden, points positions and total point pots in prestigious competitions are considered important. The country’s athletics is very broad. In the points table, Sweden beat both Norway and Finland.
Finland achieved 43 points in the European Championships, which was the team’s biggest points pot in 20 years. Despite that, Finland was quite far behind Sweden, 16 points behind.
A total of 13 Swedish athletes reached the top eight. On the other hand, Finland’s situation was not bad in this statistic either, as nine Finns reached the top 8 ranking. When Finland achieved three medals 20 years ago, 11 athletes reached the points.
Bergqvist reminded the Swedish media that the point pool was bigger than the previous time in 2002 in the European Championships held in Munich.
– Five athletes finished fourth. In terms of championship points, this was one of our best races, Bergqvist told SVT.
shows 3.-4. September’s Sweden match on its channels.