Gothenburg: Carlos's LJ Record Survives

After the ignominy of being beaten on countback in Belfast, foulin' Steve Fleming was out to prove that he can actually get a decent jump measured, and so headed to the Friidrottens Hus in snow-bound Gothenburg for the Swedish Indoor Championships.

The qualifying round on Saturday was an exercise in studied laziness as the top jumpers did the bare minimum to qualify for the final. One by one the Danish favourite and top Swedes languidly propelled their bodies over the automatic qualification mark (7.05m), waved to the crowd and left the arena. Fleming, not one to be rude, followed suit with a gentle 7.04m, and breathed a private sigh of relief. Christian Olsson, though, was out to impress. He got the crowd clapping and wound up for a big one. Booming down the runway he took off, sailed though the air, and landed…8 cm behind the qualification mark. Instead of waving to the crowd he limped away, with a small tear in this thigh. He would not be contesting the final. Fleming was disappointed not to be going up against him in the final, but wasted no time in getting on the blower and telling anyone fool enough to answer that he beat the Olympic champ in his home town.

Even without Olsson, though, the final was pretty exciting. Morten Jensen, the Danish number 1, opened up with a huge jump of 7.97m, and so the competition was on for 2nd place. Fleming opened with a foul and immediately thought of Belfast - careful now. In the 2nd round he jumped 7.34m and put himself into 2nd place, ahead of the 5-time Swedish champion David Frykholm. But Frykholm wasn’t going to be beaten on home turf by an Irish interloper and he jumped out to 7.44m. Fleming came back with 7.38m & 7.41m (both lifetime bests) but stayed in 3rd place until the last round when Robert Bagge jumped a huge lifetime best of 7.46m to take 2nd place and the Swedish title. Exciting stuff!

So Carlos's 7.46m club record lives on for yet another season. Any bets on the outdoor club- and former national record of 7.63m making it through the year?