Fire Brigade’s Sports Club
On the 15th of August 1941, Stockholm Stadium saw an unusual world record be broken when the Fire Brigade’s Sports Club ran a 4 × mile relay at at time of 17:16.2. The team consisted of Åke “Spånga” Jansson, Bror Hellström, Henry Kälarne and Hugo Karlén.
After 24 hours of pouring rain, the sun came out just as the race was about to start, and thanks to good pacesetters, the firefighters were in a great position to break the record. When the final runner Bror Hellström crossed the finish line, they had taken a full 14 seconds off the previous record. “The world record received a cheery yet unsurprised approval from the 3,000 spectators in the stands”, one newspaper noted.
That record breaking race took place during the half time of a football game, and the Fire Brigade’s Sports Club went on to set another world record that year, at yet another slightly odd distance, the 4 x 1,500 meters relay.
