The summer will be an intense championship period with a lot of championships coming up. Both U23 and U20 European Championships will be held in Sweden and a few athletes have already been under the standards even if the qualification period starts April 1st.

Andreas Kramers season didn't end as he hoped but after all races are done he still did the fastest time in Europe at a 200 m track, and that time of 1:46.52 that he ran in Karlsruhe is of course under the standard for U23 Champs where he is the reign champion. That championship will be held in Gävle July 11-14th.

One week later, in Borås, July 18-21 the U20-runners will have their championship. The qualification time for 800 m are 2:10.00 and two athletes from Sweden ran under this time indoors. Gaël De Coninck did it first with her season opener 2:09.87. Some problem with a knee did that her only race this indoor season but she is now in full training again. Senna Ohlsson have been running a full season in USA and ended it with a new PR of 2:09.04 which makes her the 4th fastest runner in Sweden this indoor season, just before Gaël.

There is more championships this summer. Among the older ones there are ahtletes who are hoping to qualify for the universiade. That championships have an early date where the ahtetes must have run the standard, already June 1st. Among the ones we hope to see in championships finals are of course also Sara Christiansson who was almost one minute under the 5000 standard last year. As she will turn 22 years old this year her championship is in Gävle.

Still there is two months until people will step on the track for the first summer competitions.

Bannister Running is a running group with base in Gothenburg, Sweden, with Per Skoog as a head coach. The athletes comes from different clubs in Sweden and from different countries. The athletes named in the article represent the following clubs:

Andreas Kramer, Sävedalens AIK
Gaël De Coninck, Sävedalens AIK
Senna Ohlsson, Sävedalens AIK
Sara Christiansson, Sävedalens AIK

Text & photo: Per Skoog

Three members of Bannister Running was last week selected to represent Sweden at the Nordic Cross Country Championships that are being held at Iceland the coming weekend.

Sara Christiansson, who surprisingly won the women's race last year, is one of the runners who will head to Iceland. She was 6th at Nationals one week ago and followed up with a big win in W U23 race, a race she won with 1.37. Sara who was one of the fastest in Europe at 5000 m in her age grouo only had 5 weeks of base training before Nationals and her big goal this fall is the European Junior U23 Championships in Tilburg in December.

Gaël De Coninck is also back in the national team. The 17 year old meddallist from the 800 m final in Györ, Hungary, ran in the Nordic Junior race already two years ago in Norway, then only 15 years of age. She was 2nd at National Cross Country Championships in her age group only one second from the win. The huge talent had the same preparation as Sara Christiansson but have now added two more weeks of good training and hopefully will be even stronger now at Nordics.

The third athlete was a big surprise at National Cross Country Championship. Oscar Claesson, 23 years old, ran a superb race in the oldest junior age group last year when he was awarded second place after a very tactical race. Even this year he ran two good races at Nationals, but this time in the senior races where he came 7th at the short course (4K) and 5th at the long course (12K). After those two races he was selected for the men's team to Iceland.

Text: Per Skoog
Photo: Deca Text & Bild

Sara Christiansson was yesterday named athlete of the month in Sweden for her performances in november 2017.

Sara had a great cross country season where she was second behind the World Championship finalist in 1500m, Meraf Bahta, at National Cross Country Championships and two weeks later she took a surprising victory at Nordic Cross Country Championships.

Sara is now in Flagstaff, AZ, USA, at a high altitude camp together with Lisa Bergdahl preparing for the summer season 2018. She is the second in the Bannister Running group who is named athlete of the month. In July Andreas Kramer was selected after his perfomances which included gold medal at European Junior U23 Championships and new national record at 800m.

Andreas Kramer was only 0.10 from the final at IAAF World Indoor Championships this past weekend. Andreas ran 1:47.21, finishing 4th in his heat. His preparations have been disrupted by a few colds which should be considered when his performance is evaluated.

Kramer started his season very well with 1:46.87 in Düsseldorf finishing second, 0.40 behind Adam Kszczot. He then ran in Torun where he was 3rd, 0.51 from Kzczot but 0.25 before Elliot Giles who finished 4th in the final.

In the heats Hamada Mohamed, Egypt, was the most offensive runner from the start. Kramer was following behind and passed half way in 50.7, his fastest opening indoor. His last lap was tough and he was, with 100 m to go, last in the race. But at the home straight he past Mohamed and with 1:47.21 he took the 4th place in the first heat. That meant that he had the last spot to the final if not more then two runners would run faster in the second and last heat.

Sadly for Andreas, three runners ran faster in the second heat and he was just right outside the final finishing 7th, 0.10 from the final.

His seasons opener was his best indoors, 2.13 seconds faster the the previous year which ended with 1:46.86, and that know after this indoor season stands as his indoor PR. Kramer had problems with colds during February. He will now recover fully, taking some rest, and then will start to prepare for outdoor season with European Championships in Berlin as the big highlight.

Last year, 20 years of age, Kramer became the national record holder for Sweden outdoors, running 1:45.13 in Karlstad. With a good build up phase the chances of improving that time are high.

Text: Per Skoog
Photo: Deca Text & Bild

Andreas Kramer took his third National Indoor title when he won 800 m in Gävle the past weekend. He controlled the race from the front and won with 0.15 before Andreas Almgren in a time of 1:50.61.

Saturday Kramer ran in the 400 m heats and won his heat in a personal record, 48.15. This was his first race in 4 years and he lowered his old PR with 3 seconds.

Lisa Bergdahl ran a PR in women's 3000 m with 9:48.97. That meant that she lowered her old one from last year with 29 seconds. She was in medal position during the last k but in the end she was 5th.

Leo Magnusson was 3 seconds from the medal when he was 4th in a personal record of 3:53.00 in men's 1500 m. Sadly Ali Al-Jabani couldn't run in the 1500 m race as he was sick.

Erik Jälknäs, born 2000, ran a new 4 second PR in men's 1500 m heats when he was only 0.07 to advance to the final. 3:58.57 was a good preparation for National Junior Championships in Uppsalla the coming week.

Besides Gaël De Conink we also had Madeleine Björlin-Delmar in the 800 m final for women. She ended at 6th place in the final.

Text: Per Skoog
Photo: Deca Text & Bild

Gaël De Coninck took a silver medal at 800 m and broke the swedish national junior record when she ran 2:05.43 in the final at National Championships. That meant that she lowered a 22 year old record.

The race was lead by Hanna Hermansson, a semifinalist at World Championships in London this summer in the event. Gaël who is born 2001 was following in second place in a fast opening. When only the home straight was left she was third, but with a really good finish she advanced up to second place.

2:05.43 was 3.5 second better then her previous indoor record and 2.5 second under 2:07.91 that was her fastest time outdoor 2017. The time is the third fastest time by a junior in the world this year and the fastest by an European junior.

Next week Gaël will run in National Junior Championships where she will be running 400 m and 1500 m.

Text: Per Skoog
Foto: Deca Text & Bild