Jenny Kallur competing in Växjö, Sweden (© Hasse Sjögren)
The main event of the “Wexiö Games”held in Växjö in southern Sweden last night - was supposedly the women’s Long Jump which featured local superstar Carolina Klüft versus the World Indoor Champion Tatyana Lebedeva. And their duel also started off in a most promising way with Lebedeva reaching 6.66 and Klüft just two centimetres less in the first round.
But then the weather more or less spoiled it all by drenching the Värendsvallen arena with a rapid succession of heavy rain showers. Although both athletes treated the very supportive crowd to five more all-out efforts the appalling weather conditions made any further improvements more or less impossible. Especially impressive was Lebedeva’s ability to hit the board almost perfectly on all her six attempts.
Holm faces down rain and good class opposition
Lebedeva and Klüft were not the only No.1 ranked athletes in action this evening. That same distinction in the IAAF World Rankings also belongs to Stefan Holm who in the High Jump faced a good quality field including the very-much-in-form Grzegorz Sposob, World Indoors bronze medalist Stefan Vasilache and a couple of more 2.30+ jumpers.
Although the really heavy showers came after the High Jump had ended the athletes where still visibly affected by the adverse conditions with only one of them managing to clear more than 2.20. And that person was – of course – Holm who prolonged his current winning streak from 11 to 12 but who with regret had to accept that his current 2.30+ streak didn’t go beyond 12. Beating other competitors is easier than beating the weather!
National Junior Pole Vault record
However, the rain didn’t spoil everything. In the Pole Vault e.g. 19-years old Jesper Fritz set a new Swedish junior record by clearing 5.41 on his first attempt. With this being his third straight meet at 5.30 in far from ideal weather Fritz is emerging as a major Swedish contender for the IAAF World Junior Championships in mid-July.
The Pole Vault was won by Paris World bronze medalist Patrik Kristiansson who managed to find some gaps in the rain to clear 5.51 and to make a couple of quite close attempts at 5.71 despite the cold and damp conditions at the end of the meeting.
Wissman blasts to 20.56, Kronberg to 13.57
Those same unhelpful conditions didn’t prevent World Indoor Championships 200m silver medalist Johan Wissman from blasting a 20.56 yearly best (and only 0.13 off his national record) in nil wind leaving second placed Hamed Al-Bishi of Saudi Arabia almost half a second behind
Also winning in an impressive way by half a second was hurdler Robert Kronberg who recorded 13.57 despite this lack of true competition and despite a headwind. Kronberg has reached the final of each major championship (Olympic, World and European – indoors and outdoor) but one in the last five years and judging from this race in combination with his recent victory in the European Cup Super League he looks likely to achieve “9 out of 10” in Athens!
Kallur hurdles to 12.88 PB
But still the image from the 2004 “Wexiö Games” that most likely will be best remembered by the spectators came in the women’s 100m Hurdles, when Paris World Championships No 5 Aurelia Trywianska despite a 12.92 found herself run down in the second half of the race by Jenny Kallur, who lowered her PB to 12.88 and most likely thereby secured herself a place on the Swedish Olympic Team.
No more in the shadow of her sister?
Despite being a finalist in the 2000 World Junior Championships and getting a silver medal at the 2001 European U23 Championships Jenny has been very much in the shadow of her identical twin sister Susanna who won those championships and who has been in the finals of the last two editions of the World Indoor Championships.
But with Susanna still in rehabilitation after a major hamstring pull in late spring Jenny – who by the way broke her thumb when stumbling and falling in training two weeks ago - has really come into her own as proven first by the 4th place at the Bergen Golden League and then again by the race today. It appears that Susanna will find it quite hard to reclaim her position as the top hurdler in the family when she returns to the track!
Click here for FULL RESULTS from the “Wexiö Games”
