It started with Larsson running almost a full race over 100 meters in the semi-finals barely two hours before the final.
– It has been chaotic to say the least. I managed to run 80 meters and basically did three races instead of two, but shit happens, says Larsson to SVT Sport.
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– I have never been part of anything like this and it took a lot of energy when you had to switch on and off all the time, Larsson describes the chaotic semi-final which was delayed by 40 minutes and gave a short rest to the final, just over an hour.
“Are you kidding?”
In the final, runner-up home run Chituru Ali was cautioned for a possible false start and yellow carded after the field was recalled. “Inappropriate behavior that disrupted the start”, writes the organizer and refers to rule TR7.1(16.5.3)
– Are you kidding? It looks very suspicious. Nah, but what the hell? I’d like to see that reaction time and it didn’t look right. He looked a little low after the race, says Larsson, who would not be particularly happy about a medal awarded in arrears.
– But right must be right, Larsson asserts.
A protest was filed after the race. It was rejected shortly after midnight.
Sweden has appealed to the “jury of appeal”.
“Looks like a classic false start”
– I think it looks like a classic false start and I think you are doing exactly the right thing by submitting a protest, says SVT’s commentator Jacob Hård.
After the false start, the runners got away and Larsson immediately lost some distance to the Olympic champion Marcell Jacobs who won in 10.02 and Chituru Ali who was second in 10.05.
Larsson ran on the track between the Italians.
Britain’s Romell Glave took the bronze in 10.06 in the tough close battle.
The last time a Swede was in the EC final since Christer Garpenborg was in Rome in 1974. He then finished in seventh place.
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Here, Henrik Larsson finishes fourth in the 100 meter final. Photo: Vegard Grøtt / BILDBYRÅN