Sweden V Finland

The dual meet took a break for eight years in 1931. Immediately before the Winter War and during the interim peace, two matches were contested until the Continuation War and the Lapland War interrupted the matches again for five years.

After the cessation of hostilities in 1945, it was time to resume. The seventh Finnkampen took place at the Stockholm Olympic Stadium in August 1945. There were some adjustments to the programme, as the return of the 1000-metre relay (100+200+300+400 metres). At the same time, the 4x100 and 4x400 relays, which had been contested for match points in 1939 and 1940, were removed for three years. Additionally, the 3000-metre steeplechase, which had been included in the programme in 1939 and 1940, was also missing. For the first time, the 200 was left out of the match programme.

Uneven Pre-Match Conditions

Finland's prospects were not commendable in 1945. The country's level of athletics had declined, while the Swedes, spared from war, came to the match in full force. Some of the Finnish athletes had fallen in the world war, some had stopped competing, and some had lost their fitness due to lack of training opportunities.

Some who started before the war had endured through the global conflict. Lennart Strandberg, who reached the 100m final at the Berlin Olympics, won the century. Sulo Bärlund, who won the Olympic silver medal in Berlin, took third place in shot put. Håkan Lidman, who was among Europe's top athletes in the late 1930s, secured victory in the hurdles with a time of 14.6. Väinö Suvivuo, who came third, had already won the Finnish championship in the high hurdles in 1939.

Among those who had lost their form was the distance runner Taisto Mäki, who only managed to score obne point in the 5000 and fell almost a minute short of his pre-war record.

Hägg v Strand Duel Highlights the Match

Gunder Hägg, who had competed with American pole vaulter Cornelius Warmerdam for the title of the world's best athlete during the war years, sprinted to victory in the 1500. It was one of Hägg's last competitions, as he was declared a professional and banned from competition for life the following year. Future European champion and Olympic runner-up Lennart Strand provided tough competition for his countryman. From an international perspective, their duel was the toughest in the match. It also interested the audience, as 25,000 heads crowded the stands of the Stockholm Stadium on the first day of Finnkampen. On the second day, Hägg did not compete; the number of spectators dropped to 13,000.

Finland entered the match as the underdog, so the team's top athletes had to work hard to maintain even theoretical chances of victory. Finland's best athlete, pocket rocket Bertel “Bebbe” Storskrubb, who ranked among the top ten in the world in 1945, was tasked with three events. He finished second in the 400. Bebbe won the 800 with a decent time of 1:50.8, which was not far from his Finnish record and the world's best time of 1:49.3. Unusually, Storskrubb ran tactically this time. The Swedish duo formed a wedge at the front, but Bebbe powered past them to victory. In his main event, the 400-metre hurdles, the lad from Pietarsaari set a new world best time and Finnish record of 52.9. The match had already been decided before the 1000-metre relay, from which Storskrubb was excused.

The 10,000 world record holder Viljo Heino was tasked with both long distances. He faced tough competition from Åke Durkfeldt in the 5000, but in the 10,000, the man from Iitti, Finland,  sprinted to a convincing victory with a world leading time of 30:04.0. Heino fell short of his own world record by about half a minute. A week later, Finland's distance running star shaved two more seconds off the Sweden match result.

Clear Score for the Blue and Yellow Team

As expected, Sweden won the match by a score of 105–79. The 26-point victory was the largest so far for the Swedes in Finnkampen history. In the marathon table of match victories, Sweden took the lead with a score of 4–3. However, in the marathon table of event points, the Finns retained their narrow lead with a score of 673–670.

The chairman of the Finnish Athletics Association, Urho Kekkonen, took the match loss calmly and expressed confidence in the future:

"When more peacetime passes, we will return to our pre-war level."

The match was, of course, also broadcast on the Finnish radio - but not live. In the Finnish language network, a 45-minute delayed commentary was aired after nine o'clock in the evenings of both days, called by Pekka Tiilikainen. On the Swedish-speaking wavelengths, two 20-minute taped commentaries were broadcast in Finland, called by Enzio Sevón. Television was not yet available.

Results

• Complete (Wikipedia)

• Complete (Friidrottsstatistik)

• Finnish results (Tilastopja)

Newspaper Stories

• Day 1: Hufvudstadsbladet, August 23, 1945 (in Swedish)

• Day 2: Hufvudstadsbladet, August 23, 1945 (in Swedish)

Other

• Finnkampen Memorial Medal from 1945