She’s Long on Ability, but Heart Is in Hurdles : Swedish Freshman Johansson Leads Point Loma Nazarene Into NAIA Finals

Back home in Sweden, Susanne Johansson frequently was told that her best track event possibly was the 800 meters.

Johansson concedes that sometimes she thinks that may be true. But Johansson, a freshman on the Point Loma Nazarene College track team, races with her heart, not her mind.

And Johansson’s heart is in the 400-meter hurdles, in which her time of 1 minute 0.19 seconds makes her the favorite heading into the NAIA national championships at Azusa Pacific today through Sunday.

Perhaps Johansson is drawn to the 400 hurdles by the same characteristics that inspire her appreciation of art.

Johansson prefers the subtleties, split-second timing and wisps of speed needed in the 400 hurdles to the gut-wrenching grinding of the 800. Similarly, as an art major, she prefers painting with water colors to loud, harsh oils.

“I know I can be a good 800-meter runner,” Johansson said. “People ask me why I don’t run the 800. I enjoy the 400 hurdles more. You have to have everything in that event. You have to be fast, and you don’t just run; you have to think.”

Johansson did more than think her way to three individual titles in the NAIA District 3 championships two weeks ago at Santa Barbara City College. She set meet records in each event to help Point Loma to the team title, 167-162, over Azusa Pacific. It was the first time Azusa had not won the women’s title since competition began in 1982.

Johansson said she was in peak form, and it showed. She won the 400 hurdles in 1:00.19 (old record 1:04.20); the 100 hurdles in 14.78 (14.96), and the triple jump at 36-feet 6-inches (33-4 3/4). The latter event is new to her; Johansson said women do not compete in it in Sweden.

Johansson will compete in the 400-meter hurdles and the 400 and 1,600 relays at the national championships.

This has been a year of firsts for Johansson, who, at 24, is still considered a freshman by NAIA rules. She came to Point Loma Nazarene as part of Coach Jim Crakes’ Swedish connection; four Swedes will be competing for Point Loma at this week’s national championships.

After five years of searching for her niche, Johansson decided to try going back to school and moving to the United States. After she graduated from the Swedish equivalent of high school, Johansson worked for a year, went to nursing school for a year and tried art school for another year before she took a job as a graphic artist.

“I wanted to do something different and be able to learn and practice what I want to do, which is to run,” Johansson said. “I learned a lot about myself. Maybe I find out what I want to do here.”

But Johansson sparkles when she talks of going home to Sweden in a few weeks. She will compete in the summer track season there with hopes of qualifying for the Swedish national meet.

She also hopes someday to qualify for the Swedish Olympic team, preferably in the 400 hurdles.

“I have a chance,” she said, “but there are a lot of girls in Sweden who are close to me, so it will be hard. As long as I improve, I will be happy.”

Johansson said that she isn’t sure whether she will return to Point Loma next season and that she will wait to see how she feels when she gets back home. But she said she has learned a lot while training here.

“I think I’ve become tougher,” she said. “I just run. I don’t think how tired I am.”

Notes

Susanne Johansson will be joined at the national championships by fellow Swedes and Point Loma Nazarene teammates Eva Lindblad, marathon; Kris Anderson, 400-meter hurdles and 400-meter run, and Peter Stahl, 200 meters. . . . Johansson, Sawndel Reddic and Connie Navarro combined to score 98 of Point Loma’s 167 points at the district meet. . . . Reddic is ranked third in the NAIA in the high jump (5-9 1/8) and eighth in the 100-meter hurdles (14.73), and Navarro is eighth in the heptathlon (4,474 points). . . . The men’s team is led by freshman Dan Raatjes, who is second in the NAIA in the high jump at 6-11. Raatjes, who played on the Crusader junior varsity basketball team, had never high jumped before this season. . . . Einar Cronstedt rates sixth in the decathlon (6,442) and 11th in the pole vault (15-7). . . . Two Crusaders have a shot at All-American in the hammer throw: Kyong Song at 183-2 and James Payton 179-7. The top six finishers at the national championships earn NAIA All-American honors.