Machine-translated from Faroese and not yet reviewed. Read the original.
On Saturday Bjørk Herup Olsen competed in Esbjerg. Round 1 of the Danish team championships in the elite division was on the programme, and Bjørk was to represent her club, Helsingør IF, over 5,000 and 1,500 metres.
To win points for the club, only the finishing position counts. The time does not really matter. But it did for Bjørk, because as well as a good placing, she was also aiming to break the 18-minute barrier over 5,000 m. Unfortunately the weather was nothing like suitable for record times. There was far too much wind for that, and so the race became mercilessly tactical for Bjørk.
Nobody wanted to take the lead, and even though Bjørk, after the first km (3:30), more or less stopped and tried to get someone else to go to the front, nobody would. So she took matters into her own hands and set off at full speed, with the whole Danish elite snapping at her heels. It stayed that way until only 200 metres were left. But by then only Simone Glad and Ida Bobach were still with her. Having done all the hard work in all that wind, Bjørk had nothing left to answer with in the sprint, and so she finished 3rd. The time was just short of breaking the 18-minute barrier, but at 18:02.41 it was more than enough to set a new Faroese record. The old record, 18:12.28, was her own. She set it when she finished 5th at the Island Games in Åland last year. Three hours later she ran the 1,500 m, and here too she managed to run a good race. Bjørk finished 4th in a time of 4:52.92.
Overall, Helsingør IF finished 4th of the 9 clubs.
All the results are here: http://www.esbjerg-am.dk/images/htm/dt2010_resultatliste_kvinder.htm
