A while back we had a discussion on the net over the rules of the
Swedish Relay. I couldn't reply, since I was on vacation. Neither could
Mr. A Lennart Julin of the ATFS. He is (as many of you know) a lading
international statistics and rules expert. He foloows the list, but
cannot enter the discussion himself. He has asked me to post the
following message concerning the Swedish Relay:
SWEDISH RELAY - THE FACTS
Recently there has on the mailing list been a slightly confused
discussion concerning the "Swedish relay"
that Michael Johnson was going to participate in at a couple of stops on
his international farewell tour.
It was somewhat bemusing to see so many Americans being so consternated
by this concept. Because while
the "strange" medley relays have become almost completely extint in
other countries the US - alone - is still
promoting such events even for senior elite athletes, at least on the
collegiate scene.
Furthermore there is no apparent hesitancy in claiming world record
status for performances - indoors or
outdoors - in the sprint and distance medley events that don’t exist (or
even have been heard about)
anywhere outside of the US borders.
Now for the facts about the "Swedish relay":
Origin
It was invented around 1910 in Sweden.
Name
It has more or less from the start been known in Sweden as "Svensk
stafett", which is the exact equivalent of
the English expression "Swedish relay". (So the assumed parallel to
expressions like "French fries" is not
correct.)
History
It immediately became popular in our country, especially in matches
(club as well as international) and
youth competitions.
It never received official championship status for seniors but official
national records were registered from
1910 until 1980 when it was decided to restrict "official" Swedish
records to events where there were world
records. The final Swedish record was an 1:53.6 run in 1973 by the "KA 2
IF" club.
However, "Svensk stafett" is still today an official national
championship event for girls age 17/18 and it is
run quite a lot in other youth competitions as well as in local club
matches for seniors.
In "the old days" the Swedish relay also was a popular event for
finishing off international meets by
showing off the "exotic foreigners" one more time.
Here it should be pointed out that the international scene actually was
VERY different from the current one
until quite recently. The Grand Prix circuit started as late as in 1985
and way into 1970’s there was nothing
even remotely resembling a "circuit". E.g. when Jim Ryun was in his
prime in 1967 his European
competitions were a couple of international matches.
However, there was a tradition (at least since the 1920’s) that small
groups of US athletes were selected by
the AAU and sent to Europe - mostly Scandinavia - to compete for a month
or so on mostly small local tracks
spread around the countryside.
Such a US group normally was some kind of "All Star Team" composed of
perhaps a high jumper, a shot
putter, a hurdler, an 800m-runner and a couple of sprinters - most of
them world leaders in their respective
events.
Despite being so diverse it was still possible to from such a group
create a decent team for a medley relay like
the "Swedish relay" where they could face perhaps a couple of local
teams and a pick-up team of other
foreigners. This was something the fans loved.
Outside of Sweden the event caught on somewhat in the rest of
Scandinavia (especially Norway and
Denmark) as well as in Germany where it was called "Schwedenstaffel"
(also a direct translation).
That the concept still has some spark in it was very recently proven by
the fact that the IAAF decided to have
the "Swedish relay" as the only relay on the programme of the World
Youth Championships.
Records
Of course it has never been an official world record event, but that
doesn’t mean that not some very good
times have been run. The best time (pre-DN Galan 2001) a quick search
could reveal was a 1:50.0 run in
Basel (Switzerland) on 20 August 1949 by a US team consisting of Jim
Fuchs, Craig Dixon, Andy Stanfield
and Mal Whitfield.
That was an all-star team if there ever was one:
Jim Fuchs - shot put world record one month earlier
Craig Dixon - world leader in the 110m Hurdles
Andy Stanfield - world leader in the 200m (and World record holder and
Olympic champion to be)
Mal Whitfield - world leader in the 400m and 800m (and twice Olympic
800m champion)
The quality of the performance could also be understood if you realise
that 11+21+33+45 equals 1:50! And
we are talking about something that happened over half a century ago in
a world still recuperating from
WWII!
Rules
This is how the Swedish relay always (?) has been run in Sweden:
First: Run in lanes.
Second: Athlete allowed 10m acceleration, run in lanes.
Third: Exchange still in lanes, no
acceleration, after having passed both the
end of the exchange zone and the break line
(which is the normal break line at
the beginning of the back straight) allowed
to break for the curb.
Fourth: Just like the last leg of a 4x400m relay.
This means that all markings (start, exchange zones etc) on the track
are unique for the event except for the
break line and the final exchange zone.
A. Lennart Julin
Stockholm, SWEDEN
