Swedish Champs

The Swedish Championships in 1922 were held for the sixth time at the Stockholm Olympic Stadium. Since the beautiful edifice had been constructed, it was well worth utilising.

Speedster Engdahl 

The most trophies were collected by sprinter Nils Engdahl from the Greater Stockholm area. He won the 100, 200, and the 400 metres (for which, on Stockholm’s undersized track, additional metres had to be run from a second lap). Engdahl’s victory in the 200 metres with a Swedish record of 21.8 seconds was beyond the reach of the Finns. This performance also secured him a tied fifth place in the season’s world rankings.

Backman clocks world-class times in long distances

The son of a crofter, Eric Backman, claimed victories in the 5000 and 10000 metres with world-class times, though he would have lost to Paavo Nurmi. The 1922 championships marked the beginning of a streak of medals for Edvin Wide, who had moved to Sweden from Finland amid the turmoil of the Finnish civil war. However, he avoided competing against Backman by running only the 1500 metres, in which the primary school teacher from Enköping emerged victorious.

Carl-Axel Christiernsson, who competed in three Olympic finals in 1920 and 1924, won the trophy in high and low hurdles for the third consecutive year. Christiernsson’s form only improved as the autumn approached; at the end of September, he achieved a world-leading time of 54.9 seconds in the 400 metres hurdles. 

In the hammer throw, Carl-Johan “Massa” Lind secured his fifth consecutive Swedish championship.