Urheilu followed the Sweden match moment by moment in this article.
The traditional track and field match between Finland and Sweden turned into a thrilling drama. In the end, the Swedish women won with 228.5–225.5 points. In the men’s category, the score was inexplicably tied at 227-227, but Sweden took the win because it took more event victories.
Both national matches were practically decided in the last meters. In the women’s 800 meters, Finland would have needed a triple win to win the national meet, but Sweden did Hanna Hermansson your wedge Veera Mattilan and Eveliina Määttanen being the second in front. Sara Lappalainen won the 800 meters event.
Men’s javelin Jakob Samuelsson nicked with his last throw between the Finns for third. Finland’s triple victory would also have brought Finland the victory in the national match.
Sweden won the international matches for the fifth year in a row. Finland’s men’s previous victory is from 2018 and women’s from 2015.
Swedish high jump legend, currently working in the leadership of the national team Kajsa Bergqvist couldn’t believe what he saw.
– Double win. It feels like my heart has stopped, this has been so tight the whole time. Now it feels absolutely fantastic, Bergqvist was glowing with SVT.
– A double win for Sweden in Finncamp at the end of a crazy drama, headlined Expressen.
Expressen singled out SVT’s commentator Niklas Nordin, who had stated on the broadcast that “there is a little confusion here”. The tie points in the men’s national match therefore caused uncertainty for a while.
According to Expressen, the stadium in Stockholm erupted into a real storm of screams only when the announcer Tommy Åström announced that Sweden had won.
– I had no idea who had more event wins. I hadn’t even thought about such a scenario, Bergqvist admitted.
Samuelsson also told about his uncertainty. He threw 77.89 in his last and passed third Taneli Juutinen. Samuelsson thought that was enough for Sweden to win by a point.
– Then I saw that we were tied and I thought that I celebrated too hard. But luckily it was enough in the end.
How does it feel to be the hero of the Swedes, he was asked.
– I carry those words with me.
Bergqvist also praised the long jumper Niklas Walliawho also managed to prevent Finland’s triple victory with his last jump.
– Announcer Tommy Åström raised the mood and announced “the whole of Finnkampen is now up to you”. And how Niklas managed that situation…, Bergqvist painted for Aftonbladet.
In addition to the heroes of the last moment, one bag of guts appeared in the Swedish press. Finland Aleksi Ojala and Jerry Jokinen took a double victory in the 10 kilometer walk. Swedish Perseus Karlstromwho recently won 20km World Championship silver in Budapest, pulled the trigger, but then something happened.
Karlström fought to the finish line in third place, but after Karlström’s mother Siv Karlström and the doctor put the walker in protective suits.
– Muscle injury, but he completed the race for points. Bad thing. That’s a serious tear. He is now in treatment. You know what kind of head he has, but now he can’t walk, Siv messaged Expressen.
Later, Karlström told the media that he has a three-centimeter muscle injury in his hamstrings.
– It was a mixture of adrenaline and stupidity. If it hadn’t been for Finnkampen and points, I would have stopped after five kilometers.
Practically achieved everything already at the age of 23 Armand Duplantis competed in a national match for the first time since 2019.
The land match was in its own way a demonstration of the stick hero’s superiority. Duplantis could easily feel the atmosphere while the others were jumping. He started the game at a height of 560, when all but Urho Kujanpää were already out of the game.
Duplantis went over 560 in his first. After that, he raised the bar to 601 because he wanted to try for a new international match record. It didn’t happen this time, but one crossing was enough to win the race.
– This is certainly one of Duplantis’ most brutal increases, SVT’s expert Hård speculated, the ME man raised the bar by 41 cents in one go.
Duplantis won the World Championship gold in Budapest and the Diamond League competition in Switzerland on Thursday. He also attempted a world record 623 in both.
Duplantis said that he was quite tired and that he just wanted to feel how his body felt in the international match. However, he also wanted to cross six meters, but the windy conditions also made it difficult.
– I couldn’t do anything else, Duplantis replied to the surprise of the 41-cent increase.
You can find all the results of the Sweden match on Teletext pages 603–606.