Sweden

The main events of the Swedish Championships were held for the seventh time at the Stockholm Olympic Stadium. Among the highlights of the mid-August competitions was Edvin Wide who won the 1500 metres with a world-class result of 3:56.7. In the 5000 metres, the primary school teacher made his move five laps before the finish, reminiscent of Lasse Virén, and set a new Swedish record of 14:44.1. The result briefly topped the world rankings for the season, only to be surpassed by Paavo Nurmi by four seconds less than a week later at the same Stockholm stadium.

Eric Backman, who came second, clocked 15:04.2. Although this time was enough for fourth place in the world rankings for 1923, the man from Götaland had to acknowledge that the Swedish long-distance running crown had now passed to Wide.

Another triple for Enggdahl 

Nils Engdahl, the bronze medalist in the 400 meters from Antwerp, swept the victory trophies for the second consecutive year in the 100, 200, and 400 meters. By the end of the 1923 competitions, the swift-footed athlete from south of Stockholm had already accumulated 12 individual Swedish titles.

Engdahl completed the one-lap race in 49.3 seconds, which was 0.3 seconds slower than Finland’s Erik Wilén’s winning time at the international competitions in Gothenburg about a month and a half earlier. Wilén also defeated Engdahl in the meet. 

There were more double winners from the hurdles events, as Sten Pettersson claimed victory in both the 110 and 400 metres hurdles.

Carl-Johan Lind won the hammer throw and weight throw.

Sven Lundgren ran two laps fast. His winning time of 1:54.7 was just a tenth of a second off the time that would have ranked him among the top six in the world rankings. Rudolf Johansson finished just a couple of metres behind. With his time of 1:54.9, he ranked seventh in the world standings.

More world-class results were produced in the decathlon, held in Halmstad a couple of weeks after the Stockholm meet. Evert Nilsson, known among friends as “Västerviks-Nisse,” recorded a score of 6967.880, which secured the sixth place in the world rankings for 1923.