Swedish champion on 200 metres

Johan did of course win the Swedish championships in Eskilstuna. He decided to run 200 metres instead double the distance, and 20.73 in the finals were actually pretty good, considering he had been sick a few days before and also since the wheather conditions were far from optimal. Johan is now hoing to Japan to get used to the climate and try to sharpen his performance, just a few weeks now before the WC in Osaka starts.

Wissman with fever

Unfortnately, Johan Wissman, couldn't compete at the DN-galan in Stockholm. He was at the arena, warming up, but since his pulse stayed high his doctor advised him not to run. The day after is was reported he had fever and a lighter cold. While it certainly was sad - the specators would have loved to see him run against, well not aginst Jeremy Wariner who ran at unblievable 43.50, but against the others.

Cause it was a good race, 5 people under 45.00 is certainly a high class 400 metres race.

Wissman at London GP

At the London GP on 3rd of August Johan set a new sweidh record once again. 45.03 was a really strong performance. As epxected Jeremy Wariner won the race doing 44.03, and LaShawn Merritt came in second some tenth of a second later. The americans will be tough for anyone to beat in Osaka.

LaShawn begin only 21 years old sure has some great potential, but even though it might have been close he is not near competing with Jeremy yet, 44.03 - a fantasic time for any one, it ok even for Jeremy but sonsidering this was his first race for a while I bet he will run a lot faster next time.

Johan Wissman bio

Here is some short data on Johan:

• Born: 1982, 2nd of november
• Familj: Mats (daddy), Eva-Lotte (mom), Kajsa and Sara (sisters)
• Competing in : 200 emtres and 200 metres
• Club: IFK Helsingborg
  

Johan Wissman feels the pressure

While Johan Wissman indeed is in very good shape and has done an excellent season so far, in an interview in swedish tabloid Expressen he says he do feel a lot of pressure being put on him. And I understand what he means. 12 years ago (1995) we were amazed when Sara Wedlund made it to the final on 5000 metres for woman - a swedish athlete in world championship finals were indeed almost unthinkable.

Nowadays when Stefan Holm, Christian Olsson and Carolina Kluft has taken a lot of World Championship and Olympic games gold medals that's kind of where the bar is set.

No doubt it's unfair to think Johan can win the 400 metres in Osaka, I mean just the three americans are all capale of running under 44.00. We should also take into consideration Johans swedish record does also "just" make him number 14 in the world as of today.

But still, I have a feeling we havn't seen Johans best races yet and if he is able to cut his personal record and get down to, say, 44.5 or 44.6 there is a chance. Johan is also great competing man against man, so Johan, please feel NO pressure - put rather joy that people are hoping - cause in the end I think most people are sane and understand that competition is really hard.