Machine-translated from Faroese and not yet reviewed. Read the original.
Although only 15 years old, Rúni Seloy had a genuine breakthrough year as a senior runner in 2009. He became the youngest Faroese athlete ever to compete at the Island Games, held in Åland. He did not get there by meeting the qualifying times. He was selected under the special talent selection, which allows exceptions to the qualifying time. And the talent did not disappoint. In Åland he astonished everyone when he suddenly ran far, far inside the qualifying time and at the same time earned a place in the 800 m final itself. In the final he also produced a good result and once again ran inside the qualifying time.
Rúni after securing a place in the 800 m final at the Island Games in Åland in 2009
The news quickly travelled south across the sea, and Hvidovre Atletik promptly made room for Rúni in its elite team for the Danish team championships final in September. And there it went even better! He cut a good second more off his time, which now stood at 1:56.73. With that, Rúni had met Dansk Atletikforbund’s standard for selection to the European Youth Olympic Trials, which take place at Luzhniki Sport City in Moscow on 21–23 May 2010.
The competition is organised by the European Athletic Association (EAA). The best young athletes (aged 16–17) from across Europe will compete there for places at the Youth Olympic Games, which take place in Singapore in August. This is the first time the competition is being held. It should not be confused with the Youth Olympic Festival, which is otherwise commonly known as the “youth Olympics”.
In any case, Rúni may well become the first Faroese athlete to compete at such an event. We say “may”, because he first has to meet a consistency standard, which proves that he is still in good training form. Hopefully the injuries that have troubled Rúni this winter will not ruin this great opportunity for him. His first attempt at meeting the consistency standard will be at the Danish Indoor Championships on the first weekend of March. If that does not work out, there is another chance at the Tårnby Games in early May.
The provisional list of Danish athletes shows that it is unusually difficult to get as far as Rúni already has. Rúni is in fact the only boy who will run for Dansk Atletikforbund. No other Danish runner has met the qualifying times. Only one high jumper and one long jumper have qualified, in addition to 5 girls. It should also be remembered that Rúni is in the younger age year!
Finally, it is worth mentioning that in 2009 Rúni became the fastest 15-year-old in the Nordic countries over 800 metres. This was easy to see in the autumn, when he brushed aside all opposition and won Danish Championship gold at both 800 and 1500 metres!
Good luck!
