Bjørk Herup Olsen wins silver and sets a new Faroese record over 10,000 metres

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

So the fourth medal is in the bag for us! It happened this evening, when Bjørk Herup Olsen, in great style, secured the silver medal in the 10,000 metres for herself and for us. It came as no surprise at all that Bjørk would be in the fight for the medals. Beforehand we reckoned that, of the ten runners, only three could beat Bjørk, and none of them was really the favourite.

Just after the starting gun. Bjørk, wearing number 7, is straight up at the front

It was the winner of the 1/2 marathon, Johanna Kahlroth, who went to the front from the start. But quite soon she eased the pace somewhat, and as nobody else wanted to take the lead, the first 5,000 metres were run in around 19.10 min. And the four strongest had still not broken away. Some of the others had even caught up with them again.

The same order as the medals went in the 1/2 marathon: Kahlroth, Malme, Olsen, with Perriot lurking behind.

Then Johanna turned it up a little more. The weaker runners immediately dropped off, and for a while the gold, silver and bronze medallists from the 1/2 marathon were lying in the same order, with Louise Perrio of Guernsey lurking behind. Two years ago in Åland, Perrio won gold in both the 5,000 and 10,000 metres as well as bronze in the 1/2 marathon. This time she did not run the 1/2 marathon, and had withdrawn from the 1,500 metres, which she had otherwise entered. So there was some doubt about what kind of form she was in. But in any case it was clear that the closer they came to the finish together, the greater the chance that Perrio, with her super sprint, would run off with the gold medal.

Malme picks up the pace, Kahlroth is in trouble, while Olsen and Perrio follow. 2,200 metres to go

But Turi Malme of Hitra, who won silver in the 1/2 marathon, was not happy with Johanna’s pace, so after around 7,000 metres she went to the front and increased the pace even more. Bjørk was quick to stay with her and settled in right behind her. The increased pace did not seem to bother Bjørk much. Perrio did not appear to be in difficulty either, but it was not long before Johanna started to look tired. And after two fast laps she began to drop back. It was a weight off our minds now that there were only three of them left, because now a lot would have to happen for some kind of medal not to come home.

Heading out on the last lap with Bjørk in front.

Bjørk knew well that if she was to have any chance of winning the gold, she had to get rid of Perrio, so with around 600 metres to go she accelerated and took the lead. The tension grew. Were we really going to win the gold? At full speed, with Bjørk in front, the three of them now ran down towards the finish, where the bell rang for the last of the 25 laps. With 300 metres to go, the golden dream was shattered, as Perrio shot away from the other two with a tremendous sprint, and they had no chance of responding. Turi Malme was fighting for her life to stay with Bjørk, who had gone 3-4 metres ahead. That gap held until there were 150 metres left. Then Malme cracked, and suddenly there were 10 metres between them, and the silver medal was secured!!

Bjørk crosses the finish line dead tired as the silver medallist. Turi Malme behind her celebrates her bronze medal.

Both the gold and the silver medallist from the 1/2 marathon were beaten! And on top of that, this was a new Faroese record over 10,000 metres! The previous record was held by Súsann Skylv Sørensen, and it was set when she herself won silver at the Island Games in Åland two years ago. Bjørk did, however, lose one of her records this morning. That happened when Rebekka Fuglø ran her way into the 800 metres final with a new record time of 2:19.58. The record Bjørk held before was 2:20.01.

The mood was good among the team management, who together with Bjørk and the rest of the squad could celebrate the fourth medal.

Bjørk’s time today was 37:28.85, an improvement on the Faroese record of half a minute. The record Súsanna held was 37:59. It had not looked as if the record would fall today, because when they passed 5,000 metres the clock showed 19.10 min. But then the pace was turned up, and the last 5,000 metres were covered in 18.17 min!!

Bjørk has (possibly) one race left. That is the 5,000 metres, but it has not yet been decided whether she will take part in that race.