Footballers falter, swimmer sets records
Sweden’s footballers are reeling from a 3 - nil defeat at the hands of a rampant Spain in Saturday’s Euro 2008 qualifier.
Sweden failed to earn the solitary point required to book their place in the tournament, which they will now hope to pick up against Latvia at home on Wednesday night.
Commentators here agree the Latvians should not present the Swedes with too much resistance, although some have pointed out that the last time Sweden was defeated in an international tournament at home was just four years ago - against Latvia.
While Sweden languished on the football pitch, Sweden’s swimmers enjoyed a double world-record breaking weekend at the 2007 Swimming World Cup in Berlin.
Stefan Nystrand took five hundreths of a second off the 50 metre world freestyle record, with a new time of 20.93 seconds.
Nystrand’s 50-metre record on Sunday came one day after he set a new world record in the 100 metres freestyle event.
Sweden’s ladies also dominated; in the 50 metre butterfly competition, Sweden’s Therese Alshammar came first, with fellow Swedes Anna-Karin Kammerling in third place, and Lina Petersson in sixth.
