Eirikur Hansen Faroese champion in the marathon!!

Machine-translated from Faroese and not yet reviewed. Read the original.

There was excitement in the air over who would become Faroese champion in the men’s marathon. Last year’s winner, Andrias Hansen, has not been running lately, so a new champion had to be found. Two men were the favourites: Gudmundur Joensen and Eirikur Hansen. Eirikur is Andrias’s brother and finished No. 2 last year. Gudmundur is a triathlete, but he has also had good results in both running and cycling races. For example, he won a comfortable victory in the winter series in Streymnes and also took third place overall in Statoil kring Føroyar. But Borgar Biskopstø has also run well this summer, and he knows this course very well too. He was also Faroese marathon champion three years ago, so he had to be considered an outsider along with Johan Havn.

Bragdið, together with Tórshavn Municipality, had put on a large and impressive event. Alongside the 50 marathon runners and 130 half marathon runners, a huge crowd of fun runners also started, heading out on 2.2 km or 5.5 km. So there was a vast number of runners who set off from Trapputrøð, down through the town centre and on out along Havnargøta. Right from the start, Gudmundur and Eirikur took the lead among the marathon runners, with Borgar a little behind. The two stayed together until about 36 km, when Gudmundur had to let go. Although Eirikur was also tired, he recovered somewhat after taking the lead on his own, and he held the lead all the way to the finish, becoming the new Faroese champion in a time of 2:51:12.

Faced with defeat, Gudmundur must have eased off considerably, because over the last kilometres he lost six and a half minutes to Eirikur. But he still took a fine silver medal, in a time of 2:57:41. Borgar, who began closing in on Gudmundur towards the end, won bronze in a time of 2:59:08.

Borgar also became Faroese champion in the veterans’ category, which he won clearly ahead of Absalon Hansen (3:16:30) and Pól Sundskarð (3:28:39). The Faroese champion among the super-veterans was Óli Olsen, who, although he has now reached the age of 61, let only 6 men finish ahead of him. Óli’s time was 3:28:30. The silver medal went to Robert Vilhelmsen (4:23:37) and the bronze medal was won by Hans Birgir Hansen (4:57:09)

In the women’s race, Rigmor N. Arge of Hvirlan was the clear favourite, and she did not disappoint. She was comfortably in the lead the whole way and became Faroese champion in a time of 3:25:27. Rannvá Djurholm of Bragdið, only 18 years old, ran her second marathon yesterday. Once again this year she won the silver medal, while improving her time by 4 minutes. This time she ran 3:41:05. The third woman across the line was Sondy Johansen of Treysti, who clocked 3:56:24. She was also the only woman in the veterans’ category, so she also became Faroese champion for veterans.

Please note that Tórshavn Maraton uses different age categories from FÍF.

Several Shetlanders were in the Faroe Islands to compete. One of them was Carl Simpson, whom we know well from the Island Games. He showed that there is still plenty left in him, as he won the half marathon. No. 2 was Henry Olsen of Bragdið and No. 3 was Regin Zachariassen, also of Bragdið.

In the women’s race, Valborg Heinesen won, while Beinta Hoydal Joensen, Bragdið, finished No. 2 and Helga Súsanna Johansen, Treysti, finished No. 3.

All the results can be found at www.bragdid.fo

Here you can also find the results for Tórshavn Marathon and Tórshavn ½ marathon