Swedish sprinter Irene Ekelund at the 2013 World Youth Championships (© Getty Images)
She has broken seven Swedish junior sprint records this year and on 22 August, at the IAAF Diamond League meeting in the Swedish capital Stockholm, the recent IAAF World Youth Championships 200m gold medallist and rising star Irene Ekelund will line up in the DN Galan 100m.
Ekelund, 16, made a dramatic breakthrough this winter when she improved the Swedish senior indoor 200m record by three-tenths of a second to 23.15.
This summer, she has continued to progress and ran 11.35 to equal Linda Haglund’s Swedish junior 100m record from 1975 and she hopes to improve further in Stockholm.
“After focusing on the World Youth Championships this season, I’m looking forward to facing the world’s top sprinters at Sweden’s premier athletics event, DN Galan,” said an excited Ekelund on Wednesday.
At the IAAF World Youth Championships in Donetsk, Ukraine, earlier this month, Ekelund finished fifth in the 100m and followed up that run with a gold medal in the 200m.
Her personal best run 22.92 was just one-tenth of a second from Haglund’s 34 year old Swedish senior record outdoors.
On Tuesday evening, Ekelund won the 200m and finished third in the 100m at the Karlstad Swedish Grand Prix meeting and given a true hero’s reception by the crowd for her first races since her triumph in Donetsk.
Organisers for the IAAF
IAAF Diamond League calendar
Doha, QAT – 10 May
Shanghai, CHN – 18 May
New York, USA – 25 May
Eugene, USA – 1 Jun
Rome, ITA – 6 Jun
Oslo, NOR – 13 Jun
Birmingham, GBR – 30 Jun
Lausanne, SUI – 4 Jul
Paris, FRA – 6 Jul
Monaco, MON – 19 Jul
London, GBR – 26-27 Jul
Stockholm, SWE – 22 Aug
Zürich, SUI – 29 Aug
Brussels, BEL – 6 Sep
