Gothenburg – Kalle Berglund broke the Swedish 1500m record for the second time in less than a fortnight as home athletes took centre stage at the Folksam Grand Prix in Gothenburg, a European Athletics Classic Permit Meeting, on Friday (16 August) evening.
Having run 3:36.07 in Bern earlier this month to break the long-standing national record, Berglund lowered that mark by more than one second to 3:34.89. Backed by a noisy crowd and in good conditions, Berglund, 23, bided his time until moving to another gear with 200m left.
He had stayed just behind Morocco’s Hicham Oueladha who had no response when Berglund went past him and impressively increased his speed on the home straight to move into the top 10 on the 2019 European list.
“I felt in Bern, when I had to run the last 700 myself, that I could have run faster, so it was nice to get to it properly. I’ve had this capacity for a while. So to get this in Gothenburg for the home crowd, it was wonderful!” he told SVT.
Oueladha was second in 3:35.70 with Australian Matthew Ramsden third in 3:37.19.
It has been a superb month for Berglund, who also holds the Swedish 1500m indoor record (3:37.69) and will surely look to increase his outdoor time even more at the IAAF World Championships in Doha which start in six weeks. His next race will be over 1500m in the Birmingham Diamond League on Sunday afternoon followed by the all-important Finnkampen in Stockholm the following weekend.
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