Heri warms up and Rúni through to the semi-final

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

All eyes have been on Bjørk and Øssur today. But Heri Ziska and Rúni Seloy also competed yesterday evening. Heri took part in the hammer throw, which is his No. 2 event. The standard of the hammer throw at the Island Games has exploded in recent years, and the days when medals could be won with 44-48 metres are long gone. So Heri did not step into the ring with high hopes. One of his goals, though, was a place in the final round among the best 8 men, along with throwing a little further than at the last Island Games. It was also a welcome chance to get into competition mode and get a feel for the throwing cage and the ring before the discus competition, which is on Tuesday evening at 18:15.

And it went reasonably well. Although Heri himself is not entirely satisfied, the place in the final and his best throw of 43.05 must be called acceptable. This was also 3 metres further than in Åland in 209. It was enough for a respectable 6th place, but for Heri this competition was just as much a warm-up for Tuesday evening, when he will compete for a medal in the discus.

Our last athlete in action yesterday evening was Rúni Seloy, who was running the first round of the 800 metres. 22 men had entered, and the format was three heats, with the first four in each going through to the semi-final. In addition to these 12, the 4 fastest of the rest would also go through to the semi-finals, which are run today (Monday) at 12:30. In other words, only 6 men were to be eliminated.

Rúni ran in the second heat. There was an Åland runner who shot off into the lead straight away. Rúni was lying in second, and at times third place, and had full control of the situation. By 600 m they had caught the Åland runner, and it got crowded at the front. There was a bit of jostling and pushing on the last bend, and suddenly Rúni was in 4th place. He was still fully in control, however, and ran safely into the semi-final. This turned out to be by far the fastest heat, because although Rúni finished 4th, he was also 4th out of all 22 runners.

In the semi-final the first four go through to the final. That means eight will be eliminated tomorrow, but we expect and hope that Rúni will be one of those who go through to the final, which is on Tuesday evening.

This evening (Monday evening) two of our athletes are in action. At 19:00 Rebekka Fuglø runs the 1,500 metres final, and 50 minutes later young Marnar Djurhuus will be in the 5,000 metres final.

Niels Jákup had a lot to tell the press today and…..

…so did the chair