– The body was not in order – VG

Less than 20 minutes ago

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– It feels very early. This is always the case with the first race. But it was planned before I left, she says and talks about the three-week training camp 2000 meters above sea level in Flagstaff in Arizona.

With “early” and “the first race”, she is aiming for the 5,000 meters in Birmingham’s Diamond League competition on Saturday.

After returning from Arizona on May 17, Karoline Bjerkeli Grøvdal has only had four days to overcome nine hours time difference and associated jet lag before she will compete against the world tops Francine Niyonsaba from Burundi (personal record 14.25,34) and Fantu Worku from Ethiopia (14.26 , 80) – in a field consisting of 23 runners. Karoline Bjerkeli Grøvdals set a personal record in the distance with 14.43.26 in Brussels on September 3 last year.

She has qualified for 1500, 5000 and 10,000 in the WC in July and the EC in Munich in August. She will “only” run 5000 in the WC, in the EC she runs “most likely” the second longest and the longest distance.

– It would be a bit tough to do that in both championships, she says.

It was also when she tested positive for the coronavirus a few days after running into 3rd place in the half marathon in New York City with a strong personal record, 1.08.07.

– I tested negative the day before, but I’m sure I had it in my body when I ran – and I ran well, she points out.

Then she caught a “pretty heavy” cold. Then it went up and down a bit, before she started running again. Then she became “extremely breathless”.

– The body was not in order, she explains.

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The departure to the accustomed Flagstaff was postponed for a week, another week, and another week. She says she, considering the long delay, is glad she had ice in her stomach, and adds that “it’s nice to have had it”.

– I am far from having to sharpen track form in May. But I can run quite fast at the winter training, and am back where I was before the race in New York and I got the corona, says Karoline Bjerkeli Grøvdal.

She says that she has aired a desire to run 1500 meters in Rome’s Diamond League competition on June 9, before a week later – two days after turning 32 – she will run her favorite distance of 5000 meters at Bislett. Then it carries back to Flagstaff and the finish preparations for the WC 15-24. July.

PS! Jakob and Filip Ingebrigtsen will make their season debut in the Diamond League in the World Cup city of Eugene on 28 May (one English mile / 1609 meters). Karsten Warholm’s Diamond League debut 2022 will probably be at Bislett on 16 June.

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