Football

It’s been a good week for Swedish clubs in Europe. Elfsborg advanced to the second qualifying round of the Champions League with a 1-0 aggregate win over Northern Irish side Linfield.

Hammarby meanwhile made it to the second round of the UEFA Cup qualifiers on the away goals rule following a 1-1 draw with Utrecht in the Netherlands on Sunday.

In transfer news, Bolton have agreed to sign Swedish winger Christian Wilhelmsson on loan from Nantes.

The 27-year-old is set to move to the Premiership club on a 12-month loan deal with a view to a permanent switch and will link up with his new team-mates as soon as he is given international clearance.

Wilhelmsson spent last season on loan with Italian club AS Roma.

Wanderers boss Sammy Lee was delighted to get his man after a lengthy chase

and said: “We’ve been working on this deal for some time and our patience has

paid off.

“He has the potential to light up the Premiership with his pace and skill.”

Athletics

Susanna Kallur broke the track record on her way to victory in the 100 metre hurdles event at the Göta Gala in Gothenburg last week. Kallur’s time of 12.75 seconds was 15 hundredths quicker than the previous record set by Ludmila Engquist in 1999, Svenska Dagbladet reports.

“Fantastic. It was a bit quicker than I expected. I’m not in my best form,” Kallur told the newspaper.

Kallur expects her times to gradually improve ahead of the World Championships in Osaka in a month’s time.

Coming in after Susanna Kallur were twin sister Jenny and Carolina Klüft, both of whom recorded personal bests for the year.

Golf

Order of Merit hopeful Henrik Stenson suffered a bizarre exit from the European Players Championship in Hamburg on Friday when he lost count of how many shots he had taken at the 17th hole.

The 31-year-old Swede was credited with a 12 on the par-five penultimate hole at Gut Kaden, but was disqualified as he wasn’t certain of his exact score and therefore unable to sign his scorecard.

“I ran out of putts,” said the Ryder Cup star who was dislodged as leader of the Order of Merit after Padraig Harrington’s British Open last weekend.

“I missed a short one and then managed to double-hit it a couple of times in frustration. The day was pretty much over even before that. I was three or

four over.”

AFP/The Local