Report by Anders Axklo

Great joy and excitement att the first Swedish Nationals since 2019! During the pandemic it has been impossible to hold major championships in Sweden, so the 2022 where very much anticipated. For more than 10 years the quality and organisation of the Swedish Nationals have been secured by a technical team lead by Marcin Mielniciuk, and in 2022 this a was stepped up further by a live broadcast of the finals on National Swedish Television. In combination with a referees team headed by Camilla Kättström and supported by Judyta Wiecynska , both memebers of the IFA referees panel, the level of the competions.

The competition was remarkable. In some categories Swedish armwrestlers are absolute world elite, and without doubt one of the matches thast rendered most attentions where the finals in the womens -70 between Elin Janeheim and Fia Reisek. Janeheim, still an under21 junior defeated Reisek in the the left arm, and Reisek held on to the crown in the right, after being forced to take a rematch in the final. The concluding feeling of the championships is that was in every way a worthy restart after the pandemic, and a good indication of the level of armwrestling we will see from Sweden at Europeans in Poland in May, and the World Championships in France in September

One more thing:

Despite the pandemic coming to an end, the world is not free of darkness and evil, and the situation in Ukraine has been very much on the mind of the Swedish armwrestling community. It was only natural to in the opening cermony of the championship play the Ukraine national anthem before the Swedish one, and also during the championships two days raise funds to help the people of Ukraine.