Most athletes celebrate a new personal record by reveling in the progress they have made and attempting to replicate the training process that helped them reach the milestone. However, when personal accomplishments have become as common as they have for sophomore thrower Elias Hakansson, even the best of achievements can be interpreted as a sign that there is work to be done.

As a freshman last season, Hakansson, who participates in both the outdoor hammer throw and indoor weight throw, had one of the best seasons in UA track and field history. He was named a First Team All-American for the outdoor hammer throw and to the SEC All-Freshman Team for indoor weight throw. Hakansson not only broke school records for distance in both events, but also continues to exceed his own records with seemingly every throw.

As the Crimson Tide track and field team opened its 2014 indoor season at the Auburn Invitational, Hakansson yet again was breaking records, setting a new school mark of 67–9 3/4 on the weight throw. Despite a successful outing in which he set new personal and school records, Hakansson said all he could think about was correcting his few mistakes.

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“There is plenty of room for improvement,” Hakansson said. “I never throw the farthest in the first throw – except in this meet I did. I also had a couple fouls during warm-up throws. It will probably end up being the shortest of my throws out of all the competitions this year.”

Hakansson’s career at the University hasn’t always been as easy as the record books would have you think, as he was faced with adjusting to a new country, climate and event.

After moving to the United States from Sweden to pursue a track and field career at The University of Alabama, Hakansson initially struggled to learn the weight throw. Hakansson vividly remembers his first indoor meet at the University.

“It was the worst,” Hakansson said. “It was a new event to me. We don’t throw the weight in Europe, so I was unfamiliar with it. Whenever you have technical issues, it’s easy to identify them if you’re used to the event.”

Hakansson would go on to finish seventh that meet, with a throw of 56–8.

“We didn’t know what happened. I didn’t call my parents for a whole week” Hakansson said.

Despite Hakansson’s unfamiliarity with the event, he still went on to place third in the SEC championships last season and set the school record in with a mark of 67–6 1/4. These marks were enough to earn him SEC All-Freshman Team honors for the event.

(See also “Freshman Hakansson breaks school record in men’s weight throw“)

Hakansson attributes much of his success in the event to throwing coach Doug Reynolds. Though Hakansson goes back home to Sweden when the season ends, Coach Reynolds works with him throughout the offseason to make sure his technique stays correct.

“I continue to work with Elias all year and plan his summer training, as well. We do what we can with film through email and Skype,” Reynolds said.

Reynolds, who coaches both weight and hammer throw, also works with Hakansson to make sure his approaches to the events don’t interfere with each other.

“I have shown Elias how the two events can be trained with balance so that they become mutually beneficial,” Reynolds said. “We are very systematic with the design of our training, and much like Coach Saban talks about, we are constantly focused on the process of making fewer mistakes.”

Though Hakansson did not participate in last month’s Indiana Relays, he hopes to improve upon his Auburn Invitational distance as he gets set to compete in this weekend’s Tyson Invitational.

“At Tyson, I’m going to try and get a longer throw so that I can qualify for nationals,” Hakansson said. “Qualifying for nationals is being among the top 16, and that’s what the objective is going to be this season.”

(See also “Tide sends 5 athletes to NCAA Championships“)