Isabelle Pedersen, Norway; Photo: Deca Text&Bild
Jonas Hedman writes his daily column on runners from Scandinavia, here’s his column for Day 6. Jonas looks at Isabelle Pedersen and her importance in Norwegian athletics.
Scandinavian Summary Day 6
Isabelle Pedersen – Best Ever Norwegian Olympic Placing at 100m Hurdles
One of many good things with our sport is that it’s not just the winners that have reasons to be happy since all performances are carefully measured. Even if you don’t get a medal you could be pleased with a national record or a personal best. It’s all about performing at your highest level at the right moment that counts and Rio is definitely one of those. A good example of this is Norwegian 100m hurdler Isabelle Pedersen, 24, who ran her two by far best races of the season and was only 0.06 from the final.


Pedersen has won almost everything there is to win at youth and junior level – World youth champion in 2009, World junior champion in 2010 and European U23 champion in 2013. She made her Olympic debut in Rio which was her third global championships but she came to Brazil after a less good season.

She ran eleven races at 100m hurdles before the Olympics but no one faster than 13.15 except one which was 13.07 in the European championships in Amsterdam a month before the Games. Pedersen really like championships and at the World champs in 2015 she ran 12.96 in the heat into a head wind of 1.8 m/s and then targeted her personal best of 12.86 in the semifinal. 


Personal best in the heat

In Rio she hit 12.86 again and once again reached the semifinal in a global championships.
”I am so very happy! This is what you train for and it’s just wonderful when you find the flow”, said Pedersen. 

The day after she finished third in her semifinal in 12.88 and was just 0.06 from being one of the finalists. In total she was tenth which is the best Norwegian Olympic placing ever at the event.

Finland’s Nooralotta Neziri, 23, also reached the semifinal after finishing third in her heat in 12.88, just 0.05 from her personl best. However, in the second round she managed only 13.04.


Great dept in the women’s 800m

The first round of the women’s 800m was one of he best ever in terms of dept. The start list included 65 runners and top-2 in each heat plus eight times advanced to the semifinals. Five of the eight winning times were sub-2 and 2:00.00 was the last time which advanced to the next round. 

Iceland’s Anita Hinriksdottir, 20, who was fifth at the World indoor championships in Portland last winter, finished fifth in her heat in 2:00.14 and broke her own three year old national record but missed the final. Norway’s Hedda Hynne, who was seventh at the European championships, finished fifth in her heat in 2:01.64 which was just 0.7 from her personal best. But was never close to reach the semifinal.


Great race by Lovisa Lindh

Bronze medallist in the European championships a month ago was Swede Lovisa Lindh who set a personal best with 2:00.37 in that race. She came to Brazil after running sub-2:01 in four of her last five races and made the race of her life in the last heat. After 58.9 halfway she passed three runners during the last 100 meters and finished second in 2:00.04. A good Olympic debut with other words!

She is number third on the Swedish all-time list behind Abeba Aregawi’s 1:59.20 in 2013 and Malin Ewerlöf’s 1:59.48 from 1998. Lovisa might have a chance on the national record and in that case she could be the first Swedish Olympic finalist at the distance in 88 years.


No Finnish success in javelin

Javelin is the number one event in Finland and as always they had three guys qualified for the Games. In London all three reached the final and it was the same trio this time – 2012 Olympic silver medallist Antti Ruuskanen, 2007 World champion Tero Pitkämäki and 2012 European bronze medallist Ari Mannio.

But none of them had a good day and it was only Ruuskanen who made it to the final with a margin of 24 centimeters as eleventh at 82.20. Pitkämäki managed only 79.56 and Mannio 77.73. In 2012 Swede Kim Amb missed the Olympic final with 1.25 meters and this time he was 1.45 short of being a finalists when throwing 80.49.


Olympic finalist at age 37

Finland’s David Söderberg has been one of the best Finnish hammer throwers for 15 years and has a personal best of 78.83 from 2003. But he has been within 1.5 meters from that result several times during his long career and produced his pre-best result this summer with 77.60.

Last year he reached his very first global championship final in Beijing where he finished sixth and in Rio he was seventh overall in the qualification at 74.64. It was a strange competition since just 73.47 was enough for twelfth place despite good conditions. But one of the finalists will be David Söderberg who is as good as ever at age 37! 
 

