After European Championship bronze in the indoor 400 metres, Karl Bengstrom has promised that 26-year-old Sven Nylander’s Swedish record in the 400 hurdles will be broken this summer.
On Thursday, he gets another chance at the Bauhaus party.
– I hope it works. It’s time to break that record now, says Sven Nylander himself.
Sven Nylander He set his Swedish record of 47.98 in the Olympic final in Atlanta in 1996, having placed fourth as many times before.
Now he’s sixty and had just spent an afternoon at Ribersborgsbadet in Malmö, when the Sportbladet came to him.
– I was in such a happy position that I could retire early, so I haven’t worked much in recent years, he says.
But despite the years that have passed, his Swedish record has held.
– Yes, given that I set my first Swedish record in 1982, I’ve already had the Swedish record for 40 years now. So I think it’s fun if the branch gets a boost and someone could threaten it.
Have you seen Carl Bingstrom run?
Yes, I saw him both win bronze at the European Championships indoors at a smooth 400 and when he ran his hurdles at 48.52 in the Diamond League in Eugene. And I should be a little rough, he’s a good 400m runner, but he’s a bit unpolished in the 400 hurdles. There is a lot to work with.
– But it is usually said that you can add 2.5 seconds to 400 times for good barriers and three seconds for bad. Then you can get an idea of where it might end up. 45.33 indoors corresponds to about 44.5 outdoors, add three seconds to it and you get a Swedish record.
“My generation is better than Warholm”
Sven Nylander knows his mathematics, even if this equation has never applied to himself.
– No, maybe I’m one of the few who has a better personal record with hurdles than without him. My personal record of 400m is no better than 48.10, but I’ve never run so smoothly.
In my generation, we were barriers from the beginning. This is what we invested in. It was the same with Edwin Moses, who wasn’t fast at 400 smooth either. My strength was technology and that I got speed above hedges. I probably got out as much as I could in regards to my speed.
Sven was not particularly affected by the new generation breeding technology.
– No, my generation was much better than the barriers Karsten WarholmAlthough he broke the world record in the Olympics. I still think he’s a little clumsy with regards to hedges. But he has power and speed.
– Same thing with Bingstrom. There is a little Karsten about. He is still very young. But if he gets the right flow through the hedges, the record can actually be broken.
“Prefer not to work”
Sven Nylander had a long career that ended at the same Stockholm stadium as Karl Bengstrom runs tonight.
– Yes, I also tried to bet on the season after the 1996 Olympics, but it did not work. We just had our first child and our lives have changed. So the DN party, as it was called then, became my last race. I remember one of the caretakers pushed the last barrier and then gave it to me. Still in storage.
How are you otherwise?
– I feel great, but I was a little lucky in my knees. I had osteoporosis and had to have surgery. That was a year and a half ago, and I partially had new knees on both sides. The advantage was that the doctors straightened my legs at the same time, so I didn’t wheel anymore. Now it feels good, even if I’d rather not run anymore. But I can ride a bike and go on other ways.
Sven Nylander hasn’t won an Olympic medal or a World Cup medal, but few were closer.
He finished fourth at the Olympics in 1984 and 1996 and at the fourth World Cup in 1983 and 1987.
At the European Championships, things went better with two silvers at the European Championships in 1990 and 1994 and a bronze in 1986.