Machine-translated from Faroese and not yet reviewed. Read the original.
Herning Games were held at Herning Stadion yesterday, and among the participants were five Faroese athletes: the two throwers from the talent group, Hanus Bergsson and Hallur Simonsen, attend a sports boarding school in Vejle, where they take athletics as their specialist subject. ÍSB had sent Kristian Martin Garðalíð, whom we also know from Hvirlan, and accompanying Kristian Martin was his coach from Hvirlan, Heri Ziska. Karin Holm Simonsen from the talent group, who is travelling in Ribe, had also gone to Herning to compete.
None of Hallur, Hanus or Karin had yet achieved an A standard this year, and with fewer competitions left before VU-Spelen, this was a golden opportunity for them to do so. Unfortunately I have not yet seen the results lists published, so the results should be taken with a degree of caution. Hallur competed in the shot put, discus and hammer in Boys 16-17. I have not seen the hammer result, but it earned him a bronze medal. He also took bronze in the shot put with 12.12 m, which is also an age-group record for Boys 17 and 12 cm above the A standard. In his favourite event, the discus, Hallur made a clean sweep. Here he set a Faroese age-group record for Boys 17 and won gold with 39.90 m. Hallur throws the 1.5 kg discus.
Hanus Bergsson, Boys 16-17, is one of our great hopes in the javelin, but has struggled with injuries. He has now started throwing the javelin again, but had trouble with his elbow once more and stopped after three throws. He nevertheless managed to achieve the A standard for the talent group, and finished 4th with a throw of over 47 metres. He also set a personal best in the shot put, putting 11.79 metres. Here, too, he finished 4th.
At the first Grand Prix meet on the Tórsbreyt track, Karin Holm Simonsen was just half a second off the standard time over 600 metres. With the family on a trip to Denmark, they routed their journey via Herning, where Karin was to try her hand at 800 metres, Girls 12-13. And it went like clockwork for Karin. The standard time – 2:40 – was beaten by almost 5 seconds, as Karin set a new age-group record of 2:35.21 min. With that she became the third athlete that day to secure her ticket to Gothenburg and VU-Spelen in July. Karin also ran the 200 metres. Here she finished 9th in a time of 32.07 sec.
Karin Holm Simonsen achieved the A standard over 800 m. Here she is running behind Katarina Høj at GP1.
And then there was Kristian Martin. He was really fired up and gave it his very best. Indeed, it went so well that he won gold in the long jump in the men’s open category! 5.05 metres, said the tape measure. And he is also bringing home a silver medal, as he finished second in the 100 metres. I have not seen that time yet, though. But that’s not all. In the shot put he took a fine fourth place with a good personal best, which now stands at 9.63 m.
Heri Ziska also took the opportunity to compete in the discus himself. The distance did not go quite as planned for him, but he still won a silver medal with 39.75 m.
All in all, this was a very good day, seen through Faroese eyes. 2 gold medals, 3 silver medals, 3 bronze medals, 5 age-group records and 3 new A standards.
Many children and young people travel with their parents in the summer, just when they are in their best competitive form. It is therefore a good idea to keep an eye out for any competition in the area you are travelling to, and then to be proactive and enter. You are also welcome to ask FÍF for help with finding competitions and entering.
