PHOTO: Bildbyrån
Kajsa Bergqvist herself knows what it’s like to receive the Golden Achievement – and she disagrees with the tributes to Daniel Ståhl.
– What Daniel does is the essence of a feat. To make the longest throw ever in a WC final, when the worst competitor has just passed by – it’s bloody good, she says.
The national athletics national team captain was with the late August evening in Budapest when Daniel Ståhl hurled the discus 71.46 in the final round – a championship record – and secured his second WC gold.
– I have had the privilege of following Daniel Ståhl for many years. First as an expert in SVT and now as the national team captain. He has done a lot of good things – but what he did in the World Cup final goes above and beyond. Quite simply a feat, he says Kajsa Bergqvist to TT.
– I don’t think ordinary people understand how difficult it is to do something like that. Especially in a technical discipline like the discus.
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What do you think it was that made Ståhl pick up that throw at that moment?
– Daniel 2023 was safer, happier and more at ease. Not only in a competitive context, but also in life in general. I think that helped, says Bergqvist.
The last time an athlete received the Gold of Achievement was the pole vaulter Armand Duplantis 2020. Kajsa Bergqvist herself received the award in 2005, for her WC gold in high jump.
– At the moment when I received it, I was of course very happy and honored. But it was only long afterwards that I fully understood that I am one of those who have received the finest award in Swedish sports.
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