Updated 19.24 | Published 18.45
Tokyo. The throws were allowed to vote, strong covenants tried to move the competition, the World Cup organizer was pressed and the final was postponed twice over.
All while the rain was pouring down.
Here is the game behind the scenes when Daniel Ståhl took a new Bragd stamped World Cup gold in discus.
Daniel Ståhl takes the World Cup gold with the last throw
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When the second thrower of the final, Australian Matthew Denny, slipped in the ring in the pouring rain, the World Cup organizer chose to cancel the discussion final. All throwers disappeared into the catacombs under the stand at Japan National Stadium.
Then the discus world-at the World Cup stands, got in front of the TV and at the press stand-wait for two hours and see the clock pass 22 in the evening in Tokyo and all other World Cup competitions are completed before the final resumed.
During the two hours, a power play was underway behind the scenes whether the competition would be resumed on the last night of the World Cup or be postponed to Monday.
1 / 3Photo: Joel Marklund / Bildbyrån
“Very strong pressure from other countries”
The union captain Kajsa Bergqvist and the union’s secretary general David Fridell guarded the Swedish interests who were simply Daniel Ståhl’s explicit desire for the competitions to be completed today.
– Daniel has always wanted to have rain because he is great in the rain, says his coach Staffan Jönsson, who sat in line one at the stand, closest to the discus.
Ståhl had hoped, and believed, on rain. He had prepared for it.
– It was in the forecast that it would rain for two hours but I said to myself that it will rain for twelve hours. Asian weather is typhoon showers and it can rain for a long time. I’ve been training in the rain all summer, he says.
Kajsa Bergqvist:
– I dare say that he had prepared better than anyone else in this final field.
Half an hour after the competition was first canceled, the throws came in again to resume the competition. But when the rain increased again, they disappeared again after a little while.
Bergqvist talks about the power struggle in the corridors.
– There were very strong pressure from other countries that it would be postponed until tomorrow. Australia was very hard. So we pressed with our arguments that this is “The Rules of the Game”. We tried to push that they would start the competition. A World Cup is decided in the conditions that are. It can rain at Diamond League finals, GP competitions and Finnkampen. You can’t set competitions just because it’s raining, as long as it doesn’t lighten and thunder so it’s a danger to someone’s life.
It was a nervous wait for Bergqvist and Fridell.
– We didn’t know anything for a whole hour. They started to get nervous as it dragged out on time and the closing ceremony began.
At the stand, coach Jönsson sat and sweated.
– We felt it was going on that they would close down for the evening. Then I got mad.
“Half of the gang whined”
Inside the “Call Room”, the Aiva’s waiting rooms, the throws were given three alternatives to decide.
– They said that option 1 was to set everything, then no medal or anything gets anything. Option 2 was that we would continue. Option 3 was that we are competing tomorrow. Everyone said no to the first. When it became a majority vote of twelve men. Six you said yes to alternative 2, six you said no. I was one of those who said yes. Then World Athletics (the International Athletics Association) decided that we would drive, we had to drive. The organizer then arrived and said we must continue, this is not possible. There has been rain in many championships. Half of the gang whined and I was rock hard focused, says Ståhl.
Bergqvist:
– A vote between the active sounds very, very strange. It is still the competition leadership and the judge for the branch that will make that decision. It should not be done through any kind of vote where everyone obviously votes for what benefits one’s own best. It will be completely baroque, I think.
– But I am very happy that they came to the only right decision – to make this final. Everything else had been completely crazy.
Bergqvist believes that the chaos and waiting affected several of the throws, but not the experienced Ståhl.
– In such a situation, it is important to stay calm and maintain focus. I think many people burned a lot of their powder on trying to get the final moved or set and everything possible, says the union captain.
German Mika Sosna, who ended eleven, was against continuing the final today.
– The ring was like an ice rink, it was completely crazy. It was not certain at all. But World Athletics made a decision and that’s what it is, he says.
Slovenia Kristjan Ceh:
– We already noticed in the qualification that the ring was fast. When the rain came, it became a mirror.
Instead, Ståhl sat in “Call Room” and thought of the story about how one of his old hockey idols, Håkan Södergren, had cheered up his teammates in Tre Kronor in the 1980s when they were playing in the Soviet Union under poor conditions.
– It was a reverse irony to build up joy and spicy. I thought about that today. If it rains, it is beautiful weather. We go out and have fun. We turn on the grill and just jaw in the rain. That attitude. If you become negative in such situations, you go into energy. So that was my goal today: just go in there and dance and have fun.
That attitude was crucial, he says.
– It actually helped a lot. Incredibly much.
Thanks the shoes
Once the final got started, the officials fought in vain to keep the ring dry. Several of the throws slipped and many tried to wipe the shoes on laid towels just before entering the ring. But not Ståhl. He first went out into the deep wet grass every time and weaved the crowd before he went into the ring without wiping the shoes.
– It’s just about holding your hand and discus dry. The ring was perfect. The niches are the best in the world when it comes to rain. You saw how the others had problems and fell in the ring and stuff like that. Sad for them …, says Ståhl, who stood firm every time.
After the game behind the scenes, a new drama was waiting in front of the same.
– I felt I had a damn chance after the third throw, says Ståhl.
But he waited for the sixth and last to pinch the gold with an annual best in the very last throws of the season.
