Machine-translated from Faroese and not yet reviewed. Read the original.
The windscreen wipers were sweeping from side to side as the car approached Tórsbreyt on Saturday morning. I hadn’t checked the weather forecast for the weekend at all, so my hopes of good weather for athletics faded along with all the fog that morning. But it turned out there was no reason to worry, because as soon as the competitions began, the sun also made a tremendous effort, burned away the fog and shone beautifully, warming everyone at Tórsbreyt. That Sunday then brought much the same weather is something to be glad about, because good weather is almost a precondition for competitions to be a complete success.
There have been lots of competitions this weekend!! There have been many good results, and several of the competitions were also unusually exciting. There isn’t time to go through all of them here. We will only touch briefly on the winners in each age group.
In the girls 8–9 group it was Marita Mortensen, who won the most gold medals. She won the shot put, ball throw and long jump. In the running it was Elisabet Holm Simonsen, who somewhat unexpectedly won gold over both 60 and 400 metres. The favourite Oddvør Josephsen won silver in both of these events.
Óli Eyðsteinsson swept the board in all the boys 8–9 events. That came to 5 gold medals, and Óli was the only athlete at the Faroese Youth Championships to win gold in every event. But it wasn’t without opposition! His toughest challenge came from Heðin Hávarsá over 60 and 400 metres. It was especially in the ball throw and shot put that Óli was by far the best.
Paulina Fuglø was the strongest thrower in the girls 10–11 group. She won gold in both the ball throw and shot put. In the sprint and the long jump nobody could match the Hvirlan girl Tinna Berg Jørgensen. She showed herself to be a real super sprinter over 60 metres. She also did well over 300 metres, but here she had to give way to Katarina Høj. Katarina, however, also had to give way to Karin Holm Simonsen, who ran a very good 600 metres.
The boys 10–11 group is usually large, but at this competition it was smaller than usual. The gold medals were well shared among the competitive boys. It was, however, Leivur Mortensen, who became top scorer with three gold medals. He won the 60 metres sprint, the long jump and the ball throw. Pál Niclasen won an incredibly exciting 600 metres race, Fríði Magnussen won the shot put and John Hermann Fuglø won the 300 metres.
The girls 12–13 were also fewer in number than at the other competitions this summer. In this group it was especially Marita K. Petersen who made her mark. She won convincingly in the javelin, shot put and high jump. She also won the long jump. Hildur Poulsen won all three running events – 80, 300 and 600 metres.
Steingrímur Hallsson and Teitur Bjarnastein went home with the most gold medals in the boys 12–13 group. Steingrímur won gold in the high jump, shot put, javelin and the 600 metres. Teitur won gold in the long jump, 80 and 300 metres. And in all of these events Steingrímur came 2nd. Tóri Nielsen won silver in the shot put and javelin.
It was Elsa Berg who won the most medals in the girls 14–15 group. She won the running events over 100, 300 and 800 metres, as well as the long jump. Both throwing events – javelin and discus – were won by Bjørk Reynagarð Svabo. In addition, Bjørk also won the high jump.
In the boys 14–15 events the sprint king Dánjal Jákup Niclasen won gold in fine style over both 100 and 300 metres. On top of these two victories he also won both the high jump and long jump. Marnar Djurhuus won the 800 metres, while Hallur Simonsen won the discus and Hanus Bergsson won the javelin. Hanus’s result was so good that it met the A standard for FÍF’s talent group!!
Unfortunately there were some withdrawals in the girls 16–17 competition. Entries for this group were already rather thin beforehand, so not all events were held. But it was Dagmar Johannesen, who took the Faroese champion title over 100, 400 and 800 metres.
As so often before, it was Rúni Seloy who took most of the gold medals in his age group, which is now 16–17. This year it came to gold in all the running events – 100, 400 and 800 m. Helgi Geyti won both the discus and javelin, while Trygvi Laksafoss won the long jump and high jump.
In the 18–19 groups there was only one participant, and he competed in just the one event. It was Rói Holgarsson, who tried his hand at the 100 metres, and he also crossed the line in a good time.
The competition committee is pleased with a good competition, and thanks everyone who lent a hand on the day. Without solid help from the parents, it is quite simply not possible to organise events like this. We are already looking forward to next year, and hope there will be even more of us then.
Now all that remains is to enter the big final, when round 5 of the Grand Prix will be held at Tórsbreyt on 25 August. Registration will be ready later in the week.
Photos can be found at www.bragdid.fo and www.hvirlan.fo
