Nils Engdahl

athletics
bronze	1920	400 m
silver	1924	4 × 400 m

Engdahl (left) and Fosselins in 1926

Nils Engdahl (born November 4, 1898 in Västerhaninge , † September 10, 1983 in Stockholm ) was a Swedish athlete who was successful in the early 1920s. He started on all three sprint courses: 100 , 200 and 400 meters .

The 1.65 m tall and 57 kg heavy athlete started for Järva Idrottssällskap .

He was married to the swimmer Signe Johansson .

Career

Nils Engdahl won a total of sixteen state championships between 1918 and 1927:

year	1918	1919	1920	1922	1923	1924	1927
100 m (s)	11.3			11.0	11.1	10.8
200 m (s)	22.7	22.7	22.4	21.8	22.5	22.0
400 m (s)		49.1	49.4	49.7	49.3	48.2	50.2

He took part in two Olympic Games with medal success.

• In 1920 in Antwerp , he competed three times: over 400 meters, over 800 meters and as a member of the 4 x 400 meter relay.
  • 400 m : He won his quarter-finals and semi-finals. However, the final was won by the South African Bevil Rudd , whom Engdahl had defeated in the semifinals, in 49.6 seconds. Engdahl himself crossed the finish line two meters behind the Brit Guy Butler in third. Its time, like Butler's, was estimated to be 49.9 s.
  • 800 m : Here he was eliminated in advance with a time of over 2 minutes.
  • 4 × 400 m : The Swedish relay with Engdahl as the final runner came in 5th place. The British team won in 3: 22.2 minutes. The Swedes' time was estimated at 3: 24.3 minutes; the gap to the third-placed French team was about six meters.
• In 1924 in Paris , Nils Engdahl started again over 400 meters and was also represented in both seasons.
  • 400 m: Although he ran an excellent 48.6 s and thus undercut his time of four years earlier by more than a second, he had to finish the competition in sixth and last of his semi-final run.
  • 4 × 100 m : The relay in which Engdahl ran in second position also only made it to the semi-finals.
  • 4 × 400 m : Here the Swedish team, which started with the line-up of Artur Svensson , Erik Byléhn , Gustaf Wejnarth and Nils Engdahl, was in top form and came behind the USA, which set a new world record in 3: 16.0 minutes in 3: 17.0 min in second place. The British final runner Guy Butler was relegated to third place by Engdahl by 4 tenths of a second.

Records

Nils Engdahl set four national records (all in Stockholm):

• 200 m:
  • 21.9 s, achieved on July 11, 1920. This record was only improved by a tenth 15 years later by Lennart Strandberg .
• 400 m:
  • 49.4 s, achieved on August 4, 1918. This made Engdahl the first Swedish runner to run under 50 seconds.
  • 48.5 s, achieved on August 25, 1919
  • 48.2 s, achieved on August 17, 1924. This record was only set ten years later by Bertil von Wachenfeldt .

Engdahl's best time over 100 meters is given as 10.7 s (1920) and over 800 meters with 1: 57.5 min (1920).

Web links

• Nils Engdahl in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )