It was too tough to get to the semifinals directly from the trial for Erik Erlandsson, who instead has to run a requalification: “You’re not used to running with such fast runners,” he says.
Erik Erlandsson, the 20-year-old who took Sweden by storm when he made it all the way to fourth place in the EC final in Rome at the beginning of June this year, made his Olympic debut on Monday night when it was time for the 200m trial heats. It was about being top three in the heat to go straight to the semi-finals, otherwise you got another chance in the re-qualification.
Erik ran in the fifth test heat together with, among others, the strong American Erriyon Knighton.
Erlandsson ran strongly, especially in the beginning of the race, but came a little behind the world runners. It looked a bit tense in the race and Erik came in seventh in 20.65. Since only the top three advanced to the semi-finals, there will be a re-qualification for Erik on Tuesday at 12:30 p.m.
– It was great fun to run at the Olympics. Unfortunately, I didn’t get what I wanted today. I got an ok start, but then it became stiff and crooked and then it doesn’t go fast, he says and continues:
– You are not used to running with such fast runners. I’m used to being able to enter the race and so when you notice after ten meters that you don’t do it, it’s easy to get tense. I knew they would come fast and tried to prepare for it but it didn’t quite work out.
Now a re-qualification awaits tomorrow, Tuesday, and it’s something Erik is looking forward to:
– I’m just tagged. I want revenge from today.
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Read more about Olympic athletics in our Olympic guide.
On them Olympic Games website you will find a schedule where you can see start lists and results.
