22 Dec 2011 at 10:49 | Published by: Hans | Views: 11587 | News search

Filip Svensson moved by the fact that he just won the WC in Strokeplay  (Photo by Patric Fransson 2011)

Interview with Filip Svensson (FS), Sweden and Skoghalls BGK

This interview was done the 22nd of December 2011. Interviewer is Hans Bergström (HB).

HB: First of all congratulations to a great Stockholm Championship of 2011 resulting in two gold medals? How do you rank this Championship experience compared with your previous merits?

FS: For me this is hard to describe in words. By far the biggest experience in my life so far and I doubt I will ever experience something similar again.

HB: What were your goals before the Championship?

FS: My ambition before the Championships was to reach the final cup on Saturday and take it from there. I knew I was strong in match play so this was my main target before. It later showed that I was totally mistaken here and my success came surprisingly in the stroke play instead.

HB: What was your reaction when you got the news that you where ranked as nr 1 on the WMF ranking list?

FS: At first when I heard about this I assumed there was a mistake been done. But when I realized that it was true I was very happy and felt like a victory in some way already.

HB: How did the preparations and training rounds go in Stockholm? Were you as sharp there as you where in the competition?

FS: The practicing rounds was OK but not on the same level as in the tournament. It’s a bit typical for me that I often play better and mentally sharper when it’s the real thing, when the match starts.

HB: Can you describe the final lap in the stroke play final?

FS: My goal before the last round was to achieve the best round I could, both for myself but also for the big audience. But in the beginning of the round when I lost some strokes to my competitors I began to think “silver again”

Then the turnaround for me came when I aced both lane 7 and 8 and I knew I was back in the game again. At that moment I had the feeling that nothing could stop me.

And with the support of my team mates and the audience it became quite “easy to play” to put it mildly.

And when I aced lane 17 I actually began to understand that this was leading all the way. That was a totally magic feeling.

HB: What were your thoughts on lane 18 knowing that an ace meant gold? Nervous?

FS: I would lie if I told you I was not nervous. I had missed that lane once before, but at that moment I felt like someone needed to break my leg for me to miss (ha-ha).

HB: And maybe you can share how it was playing for team gold at home ground with a home audience?

FS: When you have the audience with you everything is so much easier. You get the feeling that you sort of floats upon their support. So it was a really nice experience to play with this audience and it’s also nice that we could deliver a good result.

HB: When did you understand that is was going to be gold for the men’s team.

FS: Before the last round on the eternit I think we were in the lead by 20 strokes or so, and many believed this already clear, but for me I waited until about half of the round before started to feel more secure :)

HB: Can you tell us about the celebrations in the men’s team after the gold was secured?

FS: It was almost like a chock for the team that we actually made it so the mode in the team became a bit crazy. Calle didn’t really believe that we could do it so to see his reactions afterwards made was really funny for the rest of us.

HB: And on Saturday morning you lost the first game in the match play finals, normally your strongest part of the game. Was it hard getting the right energy and focus for the match play finals on Saturday?

FS: I think I had the energy and was ready for it, but maybe mentally I was already quite satisfied with my results. So my mental attitude was maybe not the real killer I can be at my best.

HB: Now tree months later which memories are the strongest from Stockholm?

FS: When Calle aces lane 18 on the final team round on the eternit is a moment I will never forget :)

HB: And when arriving home you did it in style. Can you share what happened back in your home town Staffanstorp?

FS: When I arrived home to the central station in Lund my whole family was waiting. They had flags and lots of hugs for me and when we came out on the parking lot there was a limousine waiting to take me home to Staffanstorp. This ride was a nice experience with good music, good company and some Champagne.

At home we had a nice dinner that my family made and of course I had to tell those that couldn’t be in Stockholm personally over and over again what had happened in Stockholm.

HB: How has your success been noticed by media and people around you?

FS: I have been called for short interviews by some newspapers. Also my boss at work arranged some attention that ended up in a one-pager in a local news magazine.

And now in the end of the year I was awarded and won the “Sport achivement of the year 2011” in the town of my club (Hammarö Kommun) which of course is a great honor.

HB: What is your opinion about the way the Stockholm championships were played with 2 days team, one day stroke play and one day match play?

FS: I haven’t reflected that much about it since I was pretty successful. But maybe it’s not optimally without analyzing too much.

HB: Your club, Skoghall BGK, was for the first time also playing in the European Cup. Can you tell us about that experience?

FS: This was extremely fun even if the result was not what we had hoped for. But it was such great fun so we would really like to be there also next year and will fight to achieve this.

HB: What happens next for you in Minigolf?

FS: In January I will travel to Italy to take part in a night marathon together with the ”young elite group” of the Swedish Federation. This will be lots of fun I think.

HB: Again a big congratulation to the double gold medals in Stockholm and good luck in the future.

FS: Thank you very much. Let’s hope our small sport can be seen in the Olympics in the future.

SHARE Share Tweet