FÍF archive

Danish Youth Championships: two Danish gold medals for Øssur

13.09.2012 · Hallur Holm

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

The weekend before last, the Danish Youth Championships (DM ung) were held in Hvidovre. At the time we wrote about the excellent results from the first day, and that article can be read here: https://www.athletics.fo/?p=6935> The results from the second day were every bit as good, so this is far too good a story to let pass without a short report, even though a few days have now gone by.

Nine Faroese athletes took part in the competition: seven from Hvirlan and one each from Bragdið and Treysti. Øssur Debes Eiriksfoss won his first Danish title in the triple jump on Saturday, and on Sunday he had two more events. In the morning came the high jump, where he won a comfortable victory without jumping up to his best. His winning height was 184 cm, which he cleared at the first attempt. He then knocked the bar three times at 190 cm, but the 184 cm was enough to win gold and his next Danish title! His third event was on Sunday afternoon, when the long jump was on the programme. It was close at the top, and had Øssur jumped up to his very best, he would have had a chance of winning his third gold medal. But Øssur finished just 36 centimetres behind the gold medallist, in bronze-medal position with 6.33 metres, which he jumped in the final round. Øssur moved to Copenhagen this summer to study, and there he has started training with Denmark’s largest club, Sparta, which he also represented at the championships.

Øssur in his Sparta kit glides easily over 184 cm to become Danish champion.

Rói Holgarsson also moved to Copenhagen this summer, and he too represented Sparta at the DMU. On Saturday he won bronze in the 100 m while also achieving the qualification standard for the Island Games. And on Sunday he made it absolutely clear that he is, and remains, the Faroe Islands’ sprint king. In the 200 metres he once again beat the Island Games qualification standard, setting a big personal best of 23.33 (+1.6). And in a very tight race with three others, Rói managed to sprint his way to the silver medal in Boys 20-22. Just 1/10 of a second separated numbers 2 and 5.

Rói with the bronze medal he won in the 100 m (photo: Gutti)

We won one more medal that Sunday. It came in the discus for Boys 16-17, where we have the great talent Hallur Simonsen. Hallur is not afraid of losing and is very keen to win, so he puts a great deal into every one of his attempts. This nearly cost him his place in the final, but he just scraped through with a throw of 33.91. His first throw in the final failed, but then he played his trump card, and in his last two throws he first reached 37.50 m and then 40.40 m, which is a new age-group record and was also enough for a secure bronze medal.

Hallur Simonsen, who represented Vejle IF, with his bronze medal.

Hanus Bergsson did not compete on Sunday. On Saturday he won bronze in the javelin (54.33 m), and in the shot put he threw 11.43 m.

However, it was not only the medal winners who performed great feats. Two of the most hard-working athletes in Hvirlan, Trygvi Laksáfoss and Tórur Mortensen, have trained a lot and trained well all year, though without it really showing in their results. However, at the Faroese Youth Championships Trygvi suddenly made a breakthrough in the high jump, when he cleared a full 179 cm and became the second-best Faroese ever. On Sunday, though, he jumped 165 cm and did not make an impact. But on Saturday he had also made a real breakthrough in the triple jump, where he set a personal best by almost a full metre and a clear age-group record, which now stands at 12.63 metres (+0.6). And, sure enough, a real breakthrough also came in the long jump on Sunday. Here he had only two valid jumps, but both were long. In the second round he jumped 5.86 metres, and with his sixth and final jump he reached 6.02 metres, finishing fifth in the Boys 18-19 competition. This is also a new age-group record.

Tórur Mortensen, Boys 14-15, also claimed two age-group records. The first was in the long jump, with 4.94 metres, and then also in the triple jump, where he had a superb series of 6 good jumps. Twice he went beyond 11 metres. The longest was 11.26 m, which was good for a fine 4th place. However, it is his third-longest jump that will stand as the age-group record, as there was too much wind on the other two, so the age-group record is now 10.92 metres.

Helgi Geyti, Boys 18-19, competed in the javelin and the discus. In the discus he was one and a half metres off his best with 34.54 m, but in the javelin he set an excellent new personal best of 44.77 – just a hand’s breadth from the age-group record.

Tummas Napoleon Arge, Boys 16-17, competed in the 100 m and 200 m. He did not quite sprint to his very best, but with 12.17 sec in the 100 metres he was only 5/100 sec off his personal best, while he ran 24.86 sec in the 200 metres, which is also close to his best time.

Tummas Napoleon Arge, representing Århus 1900, flies across the finish line.

Things did not go as well as planned for Rebekka Fuglø. She has taken part in the Danish Youth Championships for many years and owns a huge collection of medals from these championships, several of them of the golden colour. Before the competition she had been a little unwell, and after returning home it turned out that she had been walking around with pneumonia. So perhaps it was not so strange that she was unable to live up to her own expectations. Her results were: 800 m – 2:27.23. 1,500 m – 5:05.97. 5,000 m – 20:49. And that is not bad at all for a girl with pneumonia!!!

Rebekka in the green Vejle IF kit (photo: Gutti)

All in all, the Faroese athletes won two golds, one silver and four bronzes. And that is without Marnar Djurhuus, Rúni Seloy and Bjørk Herup Olsen, who have otherwise collected plenty of medals at Danish Championships. In addition, we have several others who could have taken part and could very well have made their mark among the top three. The DMU is a fine opportunity for the clubs to send their best athletes to. The competition calendar for next year has not yet been set, but room is expected to be made for the DMU.

FÍF warmly congratulates everyone on the excellent results.

7 Hvirlan athletes at the DMU. Back: Hallur, Øssur, Helgi, Hanus. Front: Trygvi, Tórur, Tummas Nap.