The Swede struck with a real super race in Valencia, Spain last December. He then set a new Swedish record at 2:10:09 and passed both the international and Swedish Olympic qualifying limit with a good margin.
Nevertheless, David Nilsson has not received a confirmed ticket to the Tokyo Games - and now the future is even more uncertain.
Due to the unstable situation in the world, World Athletics has paused the Olympic qualification until December 1. The reason given is that the training opportunities in the world are so different at the moment considering the prevailing corona pandemic.
- All the results from now until the first of December can still be met, such as the personal best and world record, but it will still not be able to take you to the Olympics, says Nilsson.
- Now I have a time from Valencia that should be valid to put up, but then I still have some time to prove to SOK it seems. I don't know how they look at whether I'm running a mara during this period, which, according to World Athletics, should not be approved as Olympic foundation.
The future plan uncertainDavid Nilsson's plan for the fall was to run the "simpler" marathon races in Berlin and London. Results that nobody knows will apply to the Olympics.
- There is uncertainty so now I have a few different options, either I can run in the fall or maybe I should wait until December, January and February to really get that time, he says and continues:
- I also don't know how other runners reason. If they choose to wait until winter with the next mara, it will be very stupid for me to come to a race where the best are not there.
"It's very strange"Nilsson thinks on the one hand that it is reasonable for World Athletics to pause the ranking system, but on the other hand it is strange that you cannot qualify for the Olympic Games.
- There is a very big difference between different countries how you train and when you can start competing again. That you do not qualify for the Olympics now even if you have the opportunity, it is very strange I think.