When the European Championships in Birmingham are summed up, the Swedish medal haul stands at five: two gold, one silver and two bronze. A perfectly acceptable result in itself, but the championship was marked by a recurring curse in the national track and field team: the ignominious fourth places.
In championship after championship, Sweden has lined up top positions just outside the podium. A total of five fourth places were collected during the days in Great Britain.
"Who the hell wants to come fourth? I've been training to finish in the top three all year and then I finish fourth - I'm not happy with that," said Oskar Edlund after the 400-metre hurdles final.
“Approved”
"It's approved, that's it. And we have - again - many fantastic fourth places. But that's been a bit of a theme at the last few European Championships," says national team captain Kajsa Bergqvist.
History speaks for itself. In Munich 2022 there were five fourth places, in Rome 2024 four - and now the squad has landed on five again. Sweden's track and field athletes deliver at the highest level, but the margins have simply not been on the Swedes' side when it comes to distributing the most prestigious awards.
"You can't ask for more from the athletes. They just go in and do it. But you hope we'll have that little bit of fluidity," says Bergqvist.
“Needed to be put in the post”
The national team captain is clear, however, that the high goal required the small details to favour Sweden. With a little more fluidity in the crucial moments, the calculation would have worked out.
"If we were going to reach the medal goal that I set before, then we also had to have a few pole positions in fourth place," she says.
In addition to the frustrating fourth places and the missed margins, there is still a lot of joy to take home from the championship. Like Andreas Almgren's gold run in the 10,000 metres. But the national team captain wants more medals in the upcoming championships.
"From a squad perspective and how it has looked at the last few European Championships... that should change soon. There should be a few more, I think," says Bergqvist.
Gold: Andreas Almgren, 10,000 metres. Armand Duplantis, pole vault.
Silver: Samuel Pihlström, 1,500 metres.
Bronze: Vanessa Kamga, discus. Wictor Petersson, shot put.
Fanny Roos, shot put.
Daniel Ståhl, discus.
Oskar Edlund, 400-metre hurdles.
Perseus Karlström, race walk.
Suldan Hassan, marathon.
