Carolina Klüft

* 23 April 2009: Carro's dad said that she'll focus only ont the long jump this season, so no triple jump for Carro. So after Carro quit last year with the heptathlon, she also quits with the triple jump. "With all the injuries that Carro had, she can better focus herself on the longjump. But last year it's maybe different." Carro's dad, Johnny, said. "You have to control always your body and the status of injuries. So it will be better for Carro to focus on long jump this season."

Carro's comeback will be in New York on May the 30th. Before this competition, Carro will go on a trainingscamp with the Swedish National Team in Albufeira (Portugal). Carro's carrier as triple jumper is a Swedish Record 14,29m and a 12th place at the OS in Bejing in 2008. Positive is that the stress fracture which stopped Carolina Klüft from competing in the Winter, is nog completeley healed.

* Saturday & Sunday 23 & 24 May 2009: This weekend it's in Sweden time for the national relay championships organised by IF Göta Friidrott (Karlstad). LLike last year, Carro participated with her team IFK Växjö. On the first day she ran the 4x100m as second. Her team (Ellinore Hallin, Carro, Emma Magnusson, Ulrika Johansson) ran a time of 46.31 in the heats and was qualified for the final. In that final IFK Växjö became 2nd in 46.24 after home team IF göta with Swedish sprinter Emma Rienas. Carro's team also run the 4x400m. They won their heat in 3:48.07 and they're placed for the final. Carro ran as 4th, and this was the team: Ellinore Hallin, Ulrika Johansson, Josefin Svensson and Carro. Last year the team won the 4x400m. Click here to watch full results of day 1. 

In the final of the 4x400m won Carro's team IFK Växjö (Emma Magnusson, Ulrika Johansson, Josefin Svensson & Carolina Klüft) in 3:42.75. Carro ran plus minus 53.4 in her 400m. She ran as last and ran away to end in 3:42.76. Congrats to IFK Växjö and Carro in particular! Click here to watch full results of day 2.

* Sunday 31 May 2009: Today, Carro jumped at the New York Gala. She jumped 6,34m (wind +3.0) in the long jump. It was Carro's seasonsopener in the long jump and she was pretty satisfied because she could jump without feeling any pain. But she jumped carefully. "I hadn't got the 'power' in my legs today." "Don't expect a super result in the beginning of the season." Carro said, " Wait until the WC in Berlin, then I'll be in good shape." she said the a Swedish newpaper. About her injury Carro said: "The leg is healing, it's less swoollen and irritaded when I'm training." Carro said to SvD. The competition was won by the Canadian Ruky Abdulai in 6,78m. Click here to watch the results of the long jump competition. Below you can watch a video from an interview with Carro and right of it, there's a vid from Carro's jump.

     

* Tuesday 9 June 2009: Carro jumped tonight at the Swedish GP in Göteborg. But it wasn't tha good. She had only one clear jump, the rest were fouls. She finished with a jump of 6,53m, a relieve. We can conclude that Carro isn't in a good shape at the moment... But Berlin is still two months to go and she got her selection, so just keep up the good work Carro and everything wil be alright! Carro became second after the Russian Olga Kutjerenko (6,85m). Click here to watch full results of the competition. Click here to watch a movie from the competition.

* Wednesday 1 July 2009: Swedish Championships for teams: Carro was impressive, but in the wrong discipline... Carro did a strong comeback after a period of rest for her injury and bad results. She won the 100m before sprintspecialist Lena Berntsson and Emma Rienas. Her time was 11.67 and her PB from 2004 is 11.48, only 19 hundrets away from her PB. "I've got a great feeling, now the jumping has to better too." she said to SVT sport.

Later that evening, Carro also run the 400m and it became, again a victory! Carolina won in 54.94 and beat Moa Hjelmer. But from now on, long jump is all that matters for Carolina Klüft, to begin on Friday at the Bislett Games. "It feels good to be back again. I know iIm strong and my strass fracture is healing. Now I've only got to look forward. This little break was good for me. I've bee able to train decent and I've got confidence." carro said.  Click here for full results of the Swedish Championships!

* Friday 3 July 2009: Caro'll be jumping at the Bislett Games (Golden League meeting) in Oslo (Norway). Click here to watch the entree list.

* Wednesday 29 October 2008: Carro anounced in the Swedish media that she has got a stress fracture. After the twin sisters Kallur, Carro has got the same injury, a stress fracture in the shin-bone. Because of this injury, it's impossible for Carro to train long jump or triple jump. Röntgenphotos unmask the crack in Carro's shin-bone. "I had some troubles from the periosteum last summer. But we got the problem away with ice, but we never believed that it were bad symptoms." Carolina said to Radiosporten.se. The injury is almost identic to the Swedish hurdlers Jenny and Susanna Kallur, but also Swedish triple jumper Christian Olsson has got such an injury... Bad luck for the Swedish athletics! Fortunatly, Carro's injury is a little bit softer. "In a few weeks I've got to do another röntgenreasearch to see if it's healing. But it seems that it starts to heal according to the first research." Klüft said. Carro's still hoping to compete in de long jump this Winter. Hopefully for her she can jump this Winter! I whish you the best Carro, get well soon!

 

It' remarkable that the 3 athletes were coached by Agne Bergvall. The twins were trained by him and Carr's still training with him. But it's just an unlucky accidence. Bergvall keeps his theory for him... That's quit normal, I hope for him that his athletes (or ex-athletes) recover soon, because his one ofthe best coaches on earth! Agne said to Sportbladet.se tha they're training on straight and running. Agne also said that it's self-evident that Carro can have an injury like that if you're working for almost 10 year on such a high level. There's no clutch between the injury and the practices.

* Tuesday 4 November 2008: Today there appeared an article on the IAAF-site about all the stress fractures in the Swedish athletics. Click here to read it. Below you can read some pieces from the article.

Her coach, Agne Bergvall, told the Swedish press that Klüft's fracture is not as serious as the other three athletes': "She can't do any jumps training but we are pushing hard with running and strength training," he said. He was confident his charge would be competing indoors this winter.

The athlete herself was positive about the injury and appeared to agree with her coach, rejecting any threat of missing the indoor season: "They say it will heal," she said, "and things look good. But it's certainly strange that Jenny and Sanna have got the same injury. I can't say if it has been caused by something in training, but it is probably the case.”

"It's a very unusual injury. My lower leg hurt during the summer, but we treated it with ice and it went away. We had no idea it was something more serious," said Klüft.

* Thursday 27 November 2008: Carro can train back full and it's hopefull that she can make the indoorseason! "It seems to be better and we are training full. There's nothing that she can't do." Agne Bergvall said to Eurosport. Everything seems to be that she can compete indoors with the European Championships in Turin as main goal, only with long jump. "We don't chose any competition, but we make a decision in 2 weeks." Bergvall said. Although Carro will do triple kump outdoors, she'll only do long jump indoors.

* Monday 22 December 2008: It's almost Christmas, but it's also almost the end of the yer 2008 and that means that many sportawards are distributed. Carro didn't became European Athlete of the Year 2008 neither she became IAAF-athlete of the year. But she became 8th in the election of Swedish Athlete of the year. Click here to watch the full list. The award was won by ex-high jumper Stefan Holm who anounced his retirement of the sport earlier.

* Thursday 25 December 2008: Carro said in an interview to Sportbladet.se that it's not certain that she'll compete indoors because of her injury (stress fracture). The indoorseason of Carro is in danger! She said that she will first recover full from her injury before she'll do any form of competition. She also said that she hasn't start yet with 'jump'training because of her injury. She said that her only main goal at the moment is to be healthy again without any injury. It's the same injury that forced Susanna and Jenny Kallur to an operation. "I've got the advie from Sanna and Jenny to have patience and to wait rather too long than begin too soon." "You've got have respect for this type of injury. The burst is better, but it hasn't healed full. I don't shout 'hej' right now. I prefer to avoid an operation." She doesn't want to take any risks, but she prefers a 'natural healing' without any operation. "It's not actual to operate. My injury heals, but I'm not from the intention to take any risks. I can run fast (or sprint) and last Monday I trained with spikes for the first time this Autumn without feeling anything. But I've got to be patience. I'm not planning anything."

"I've got to be patience. I know that a stress fracture not heals full. It can be that I compete indoor, but only the running: 60 m hurdles. I can sprint, but not long jump right now." Carro said to Sportbladet.se. Because of that injury Carro is forced to not compete long jump indoor.

 

On the question what her main goal for 2009 was, she answered: "The only goal right now, is to recover and become healthy again."

It's possible that she drops the triple jump. "If I'm healthy it's possible that I drop the triple jump if I can't handle those two disciplines (because of an injury). And than I chose long jump." "It was not my intention to do the triple jump indoor, but I'll begin totrain it when the indoorseason is over. Then we'll see. But I'll always said that long jump is my main discipline." Like the most of us know that triple jump is very loading for the muscles, is can be realistic that she'll drop the triple jump and go only for the long jump. Carro consulted the same specialist as the sisters Kallur: Leif Swärd in Göteborg.

Click here to watch the press message on SVT.se (Swedish). If you want to read it full (Swedish) then go to Sportbladet.se and read the article...

Maybe you wondered what is a stress fracure like? - It causes a fraction on the skeletton and causes a long toll. Carro's pain situates on the middle of the left shin bone, higher than the sisters Kallur. In the triple jump, Carro uses the right foot to jump up so that triple jump has, probably, nothing to do with the injury. According to her the injury started after her problem with her dislocated left foot at the World Championships in Helsinki 2005.

* Tuesday 30 December 2008: Carro escapes from an operation.The rönthenphotos gave postive information about Carro's injury. Last Friday Carro's stressfracture was prospected and the result is positive. "The haling goes well and I believe that an operation isn't necessary."  said doctor Leif Swärd to Eurosport.se. "It looks very postive, but it's hard to say what the future will bring. But the photos show a progress." Swärd said. Despite of the progress ,it isn't sure that Carro will compete indoor. "We'll take soon a decision, but we want to wait. There's always a danger also on the photo, but we'll hope dat it will develope well. We have to make a decision to not start to soon." 'Pappa' Johnny Klüft said. He also said that it's possible to skip the long jump and triple jump indoor. "In those jump-diciplines there's an extreme toll for the calf," Leif Swärd said.

* Wednesday 07 January 2009: Carro won't do the long jump this Indoor season. According to the Swedish newssite TV4.se, Carro will skip the European Indoor championships in Turin in March from this year. She choose to do the sprint (60m) to heal her stress fracture. "We've chosen to skip the long jump and the European Championships this Winter and concentrate on the 60m.The injury heals well, but the time is too short that the long come too soon." says Johnny Klüft to Eurosport. This decision is made by Johnny Klüft, Carro's trainer (Agne Bergvall) and Carro's doctor. So, now it's going to be 60m for Carro and her first competition she'll run on January 29th in Göteborg.

* 29 January 2009: Tonight, Carro competet at the Scandinavium for the first time this season. At the Samsung Galan in Göteborg, Carro ran the heats of the 60m. She finished 4th in 7.61. "Yes, strange, but it's clear," smiled Carro to SVT Sport, after she was eleminated on the 60m with her time of 7.61 at her indoor débute. The run was disturbed by a false start and Carro had a bad start in the second attempt. "If it's the first competition of the season it's not hard to charge yourself and since than you relax more." Carro said pretty statisfied.

Below you cant watch top-4 of her heat. Click here to watch full results. Click here to watch Carro in action (SVT.SE).

1. Ezinne                  °88 Norway     7.37 Q

2. Svetlana               °82 Russia      7.46 Q

3. Katerina Cechova  °88 Tsjechia    7.59 Q

* Tuesday 3 February 2009: Tonight will Carro compete at the 60m at the Malmö Indoor Gala. Below you can watch the press conference (Swedish). Click here for the startlist. Click here for the timetable. leOn 20.50h will Carro run the heats and if she mades the final, that we'll be run at 21.35h. "It feels strange (to run 60m). I preferably sat her as a long jumper. It felt a little bit strange to run only 60m flat." she said. Carro stands on a 287e place indoor with 7.61 on the 60m. Click here to watch an interview + training of Carro (SVT.se).

      

Carro didn't run that good tonight at the Malmö Indoor Gala... She became last in 7.72. But maybe we have realize that Carro isn't a true sprinter. She's a jumper and that's what she said to the Swedish press, she found that it was a good trackn but next year she wants to jump on it and not sprint... Below you can the results of Carro's heat. Click here to watch Carro's race on SVT.se (Swedish). Click here for full results of the Malmö Indoor Gala 2009.

1. Michelle Lewis    °80 USA        7.40 Q

2. Vida Anim          °83 GHA        7.42 Q

3. Emma Rienas     °82 IF Göta    7.49 q

4. Folake Akinyemi °90 NOR         7.50

* Wednesday 04-02-2009: Today Carro was in Belgium for the annual election for the Belgian athletes of the year. Carro gave the prize to Belgian Olympic High jump champion and good friend Tia Hellebaut. Hellebaut was very suprised that Carro came special from Sweden to Brussels without knowing from anything. Carro had a lot of interest for Hellebauts pregnant belly. Check the photo album for pictures. Click here to watch a full report on the IAAF-site.

* Wednesday 18-02-2009: Carro participated this evening (20 o'cock) at the 60m at the GE Galan in Stockholm. She ran 7.68, her second time this year. With this prestation, Carro (who's absolutly no sprinter, but a jumper) became 6th. Click here to watch the full results of the 60m. Below you can watch top-3 + Carro.

1. Angela Williams °80 USA 7.32

2. Stephanie Durst °82 USA 7.39

3. Anna Geflikh      °83 RUS 7.40

* Friday 20-03-2009: Carro is back training full! That's what Swedish newssite Svt.se said. Finally some good news after a dissapointed Winter (but we have to keep in mind that Carro isn't a sprinter!)... The injury part seems to be over now for Carolina Klüft. She can finally train back her long jump. "We're doing five this week. And next week we'll raise it to 9." Tells Klüft's trainer Agne Bergvall to Smålandsposten. Carro only ran 60m sprint this winter, but now she can charge her leg with jumps too. "She get some clear signals. We do sprint, jump and technique training, full." Bergvall said. Probably she'll compete in May for the first time.

Carolina want to beat the 7m-border by beating her PB of 6,97m.

* 04 April 2008: Carro did a 6-days trainings camp in Papendal, Arnem (Netherlands). This she did together with the Karin Ruckstuhl and Belgian Tia Hellebaut.

* 04 April 2008: Later from 28 April until 13 May, Carro will be on a trainings camp in Formia (Italy). This together with Alhaji Jeng (Pole Vault) and Stefan Holm (high jump). Other Swedish athletics stars like Susanna and Jenny Kallur are going to Monto Gordo (Portugal) and in May they're going to Rhodos. Johan Wissman and Christian Olsson are going to train in Makaraska (Croatia).

* 03 May 2008: Carro is feeling great in her new disciplin and she doesn't miss every other event of the heptathlon. Now, she's training in Formia (Italy) and she said to svt.se that she can train back with full inspiration. Bu she said that because of her injury, she doesn't have trained full the last couple months. When the reporter said something about medals at the Olympics, Carro wouldn't talk about that. "Long jump is still ma main event, in the triple jump I'm still a beginner and I have no idea what's going to be. I hope on a final at the Olympics, but my main goal is beating my personal record from the long jump in the Olympics final." Click on this link to watch the video on svt.se (Swedish). Carro can't train full her new disciplin (triple jump) with only 96 days to go to the Olympics... Carro will start her triple jump debute on the 8th of June!

* 18 May 2008: Today, Carro will start her season with her club in the 'Lag-SM kval in Helsingborg' a club championship. And she goes with her club to the final! Carro competed in the 100m and in the long jump. In both events, Carro was succesfull. She won the 100m with 1,5 second before the 2nd. Carro won the long jump with 6,50m. So it's a quit good start of the season for Carro. And together with her teammates from IFK Växjö, she also won the 4x100m. And her club can go to the Swedish final! Click here for the full results. Below you can watch the top-3. Click here to watch Carro action (Svt.se).

1 Carolina Klüft   83 IFK Växjö           11.61w
2 Emma Tuvesson  91 IFK Helsingborg   12.12w

3 Linda Berntsson   87 Mölndals AIK       12.29w

1 Carolina Klüft       83 IFK Växjö       6,50 m
2 Linda Berntsson       87 Mölndals AIK    5,72 m
3 Jasmine Andersson  88 FI Kalmarsund  5,63 m

1 IFK Växjö 46,77 : Ellinor Hallin, Carolina Klüft, Emma Magnusson, Ulrika Johansson

==> 1. IFK Växjö           93p  - IFK Växjö till Lag SM final

* 24 May 2008: Today, Carro ran in the 4x100m relay together with her teammates from IFK Växjö. They didn't won like they did last year, but they beacme 2nd! Congrats to Carro and IFK Växjö. It was the same team as last week and their time was even faster, 46.21. It was Ullevi FK that won te race. Click here to watch the results. Carro said to Expressen.se that it goes very good. "It's really fun and the body feels really great." About her run: "I'm statisfied with my run. It's not about individual time, but about get loading your body up for a competition. And it was just fun to join the team." Carro said.

* 03 June 2008: Carro won the long jump at the MAI Galan in Malmö today. She won with a jump of 6,77m, but that jump wasn't really valid on international level because of the wind who was blowing very hard in Malmö. Carro was really statisfied with here jumps for her real season start. Almost every jump was with too much wind. But she said that here run was good and the place before the line was good where you've to jump. Click here to watch full results of the MAI GALAN. Click here to watch the video of Carro's competition. Below you can watch top-3 of the competion:

2. Conception Montaner ESP 6,42m

3. Erica Jarder SWE 6,26m

* 08 June 2008: Carro will do her first triple jump competition on Sunday 8 June in Växjö at the 'Smålands Ungdomsspel'. This is a competition from her own club IFK Växjö. After some difficulties with my computer, I can give you the results of the first triple-jump competition from Carro. Carro did it great! She won with a new Swedish Triple Jump record: 12,29m!!! Carro broke the record first with 12,24m, but in the next jump she improved her new Swedish Record to 14,29m! Congrats Carro. It was definantly a good triple jump start for Carro! Click here to watch a delighted Carro in action. Click here for full results. Below you van watch top-3.

All Carro's attemps: 13,99m (+0.4) 13,81m (-1.4) 14,12m (+1.2) 14,24m (+1.0) 14,29m (+0.7) x

* 16 June 2008: Carro is competing at the 'Telenor Galan' in Karlskrona today. The Telenor Galan is the 2nd meeting from the Folksam Grand Prix. She'll be doing the long jump.  After three jumps, Carro is leading in the long jump with 6,61m. She jumped this in her second attempt, her third was a foul. In her fourth jump Carro jumped 6,44m, but the wind makes it very difficult to the long jumpers. In her fifth attempt Carro had a foul. After the sun dissapeared the temperature dropped, but Carro still had to jump and in her sixt jump, Carro reached 'only' 6,37m. But she won the competition with her 2nd jump: 6,61m.

* 22-23 June 2008: This weekend took the European Cup place. A competition between different countries. Sweden participated in the 1st League in Istanbul. On Saturday Carro did the triple jump, but it wasn't as good as hoped for... Carro jumped 14,10m and became 4th. She was a little dissapointed because she hoped for more... She said she had some technical difficulties. Click here for the triple jump results. 

1. DEVETZI HRISOPIYI (GRE) 14.68m (wind: 1.8)

2. GAVRILA ADELINA (ROU) 14.21m (wind: 0.0)

3. TOPIC BILJANA (SRB) 14.18m (wind: 2.1)

4. Klüft Carolina (SWE) 14.10m (wind: 2.4) Carro's jumps: 14,02m (wind: 1.2) | 14,10m (wind: 2.4) | X | 13,87m (wind:2.6)

On Sunday Carro did the long jump and there she produced a new season best, 6,87m! Carro became 1st with this jump. All her jumps varied between 6,75m and 7,00m. But three of her jumps were with too much wind. In her 4th jump Carro jumped 6,87 with valuable wind.

1. Klüft Carolina (SWE) 6,87m (wind: 1.9)  Carro's jumps: 6,87m (1.9) | 6,83 (0.0) | X | X

2. DEVETZI HRISOPIYI (GRE) 6,74 (wind 3.9)

3. TIGAU VIORICA (ROU) 6,51 (wind: 3.2)

* 14 July 2008: On July 9th Carro competed in Lahtis (Finland) in the Long jump. Carro won that competition with a jump of 6,53m.

Carro: 'I Wasn't in very good shape after hard training. I had a good feeling with my 2nd jump which was near 7m. But unfortunatly it was a foul.'

Carro's next competitions will be: triple jump on 19th July in barcelona, DN-Galan Stockholm on July 22, Karlstad on July 28, Swedisch Championships in Västerås on August 1. Athletics on the Olympic Games begin on August 15.

* 19 July 2008: Today, Carro did the triple jump in Barcelona. It would be a test for Carro because there were a lot of good competetors like DEVETZI HRISOPIYI. But Carro 'only' jumped 13,97m, so not a +14m jump... No, her participation in the triple jump for the Olympics is unsure? Agne Bergvall said that long jump still is the priority, but he didn't say something about don't doing triple jump at the Olympics. In 2010, the European Championships will be hold in Barcelona. The little audience that there was didn't see a jump over 15m. On Tuesday, Carro will be competing in the long jump at the DN-Galan in Stockholm.

* 22 July 2008: Today it's the DN-Galan in Stockholm and Carro competed in the long jump. She became 3rd with a 6,71m jump. Carro wasn't really statisfied, she was dissapointed because she said that her warming-up jumps felt so well that she thought that she could jump further. Naide Gomes won the competition with a PB in 7,04m. She also said that she isn't worried about her competition. But she felt geat to compete against a home-crowd! And the Olympics begin just in August, so that's still a few weeks to go! Click here for the results. Below you can watch the top-3.

1. Naide Gomes (POR) 7,04m = PB

2. Brittney Reese (USA) 6,80m

* 28 July 2008: Carro participated in the triple jump at the Götagalan in Karlstad. After her previous competitions, which where not supreme, Carro jumped back over 14m! She won the competition withe a jump off 14,10m. But for this jump we had to wait until her last and 6th attempt... This jump was also a new stadium record! This is Carro's serie: 12,52m (+1.3) 13,49m  (-1.7)   13.,58m (-2.8) x (-2.0)  x (-1.9)  14,10m (-1.3) Below you can watch top-3 of the competition. Click here for full results!

2. Ekaterina Kaukova (RUS) 13,72m

3. Alsu Murtazina (RUS) 13,30m

* 1 August 2008: Carro will be participating at the Swedish Champs in Västerås. Carro will be doing the long jump which is on Friday August 1st. Carro became swedish Champion in long jump with a jump of 6,52m. She jumped far in her first 2 jumps, but they were unvalid because she went over de mark. Click here for full results. Below you wan watch top-3. Click on this link and then on play and you can see Carro in action.

2. Jessica Samuelsson Hässelby SK 6,32m

3. Nadja Casadei IFK Lidingö 6,06m

* 26 August 2008: Carro will be competing in the Finnkampen this weekend. There she'll be doing the triple jump, long jump and the 4x100m relay. Click here to watch all the female athletes for the Finnkampen. This year, the Finnkampe are being held in the Olympic Stadium off Helsinki (Finland). Finnkampen is an annual competition between Sweden an Finland.

* 29 August 2008: Carro won the long jump at the Finnkampen in Helsinki with a not superb jump of 6,44m. This is Carro's serie: 6,44m (+0.9) 6,41m (+2.3) 6,31m (+0.9) - 6,18m (+0.3) X (0.5) Click here to watch full results of the long jump. 

Carro also did the 4x100m relay with the Swedish team and they won in 45.15. The Swedish team was: Emma Rienas - Lena Berntsson - Julia Skugge - Carolina Klüft. Click here to watch full results. Carro wasn't really statisfied with her jumps. But she added that she had a cold since she came back from Beijing. She's not the only athlete who became ill or got a cold on a flightplane. Belgian Kim Gevaert also has a cold.

While Carro was jumping in the long jump competition she had to run the 4x100m relay. So that wasn't really good for her concentration in the long jump. But she won twice for Sweden. One time in the long jump and the other time in the 4x100m relay. Click here to watch Carro in the long jump (SVT.SE). Click here to watch the 4x100m relay.

* 30 August 2008: After she won the 4x100m relay and the long jump, Carro won now also the triple jump. It weren't her best jumps. This was her serie: 13,46m (+0.4) - 13,46m (+0.8) - 13,47m (+0.1) 13,83m (+0.7). Carro wasn't really statisfied with her competition. "It's stll not right." she said. One problems was that it was pretty cold in Helsinki. "When it's cold it's hard to jump exactly. You get not the right speed." Carro said to Tv4.se. Click here for full results of the competition. Click here to watch Carro in action (1:16). Svt.se

The Swedish women won the competition with 11 points more than Finland. Sweden: 209,5 points Finland: 197,5 points. The Swedish men where less good. They lost the competition with a difference of 22 points. 215 points for Finland against 193 for Sweden.

* 02 September 2008: Carro, who got a cold, won't compete anymore this year. "It's over for this year. In the beginning of October we'll start again with training. And in the middle of November we'll look after Indoor competitions." Agne Bergvall, Carro's trainer, said to Smålandsposten. Because of her cold, Carro cancelled the competition at the Grand prix Gala in Lausanne. Later she also cancelled the competition in Italy (Rieti) on Sunday. Carro won't be in Stuttgart this weekend (13-14 September). Carro and Agne Bergvall has choosen to invest on the next season. "2009 We'll keep going to invest in the long and triple jump. Triple jump takes time to learn." Agne Bergvall said. (Source:SVT.SE)

 

But Carro didn't said that she'll quit the heptathlon for ever... Swedish Athletics Federation spokesman, Fredrik Trahn says: "She has no competitions lined up in the foreseeable future. Now she will concentrate on the long jump and triple jumps. She has lost 100% focus and spirit for the event but I am sure she will return to it when getting her motivation back."

Carro says: "A lot of people will not understand my choice and there will be questions but my motivation is not enough for the heptathlon. It takes 1000% commitment. For two years I've not had the same hunger." -> This will not change my support for carolina! I don't know or you (visitors) think the same, but Carolina still be the best and most friendly athlete of the world!

 

Carro will stay with her coach Agne Bergvall but for the triple jump, she would like to get input on the triple jump from Yannick Tregaro (the well-known triple and high jump coach from Christian Olsson, Emma Green, Kajsa Bergqvist).

"I am throwing myself out into something new. I know it's risky but at the same time it feels so right and inspiring. I love to compete and to train but I don't want to feel anguish when I compete," said Kluft"When I was in Japan (at the World Championships), I didn't enjoy the competition. I felt more like, yes, now it's done, more than, oh, I had so much fun." 

Kluft was looking forward to competing in the long and triple jump competitions. "I would not change to them if I didn't feel I could become awesome in them. It could be as good as ever," she said."Even if I don't take a medal in the Olympics, or even qualify for the finals, I will have had a lot of fun on the way."

 

~ Will Carro miss the event where she has excelled in so much? “Both yes and no,” answered Klüft. “I have always loved the heptathlon. Maybe I’ll try it again in a few years, but right now I don’t have the motivation for Heptathlon necessary for competing at the top level. That’s why the decision was simple.”

~ What are Carro's goals for this season? “The Long Jump is going to be my main event. I hope to go over 7m and then we’ll see. But I need another event to give me variety in training and to have another challenge. On the other hand I have never given my full attention to the triple jump. It’s a difficult event, but great fun. I’m really looking forward to training properly for it,” Carro said.

 

* Jessica Ennis (GBR): "She is one of the greatest of all time." "I'm totally surprised as I'd had it in my head that she would be there in Beijing. It's a good move for her to go into another event and try to achieve what she has done in heptathlon. I'm sure she will do well."

* Kelly Sotherthon (GBR): "I am disappointed Carolina is not going to be competing in the Heptathlon in Beijing - it takes away my chance to finally beat her. I believe there will be a chance for us to meet again in the future."

* Jackie Joyner-Kersee (US): World recordholder heptathlon and long jump: "After me, Carolina Klüft is the greatest heptathlete ever. I really enjoyed it to watch her compete. Carolina is a wonderful athlete. Mentally she reminds me at myself when I competed. I love her mentality and energy." She believes that Carro comes back to the heptathlon. "It can alreay happen before the Olympics that she gets back the joy." Joyner-Kersee believes.