Machine-translated from Faroese and not yet reviewed. Read the original.
Hardly anyone doubts that Rúni Seloy is an outstanding middle-distance runner. Still, Rúni hasn’t quite managed to live up to the fantastic results he achieved in his first years of running, especially in 2009, when as a 15-year-old he ran the 800 m in 1:56.71 and became the fastest Nordic runner in his age group. That time is still Rúni’s personal best, but after VU-Spelen the weekend before last, there is a lot to suggest that a similar result can be expected again. Not because of the time itself. The 800 m time of 1:59 was, as such, nothing to boast about, but the race gave signs that Rúni can run a much better time in time for the Island Games.
A fired-up Rúni Seloy sets off in the 400 m
The biggest signs, however, came in the 400 m race on the Saturday before. A very keyed-up and focused Rúni won his heat clearly and cut a good second off his old record, which is by now already two years old. Rúni’s time was 51.45, compared with the 53–54 seconds he has needed in many of his recent races.
51.46 was corrected to 51.45, and of course Rúni was very pleased with the result.
While Rúni was running, it was raining heavily. Shortly before, there had been a real downpour, and everyone on the track huddled for shelter. Steingrímur Hallsson and Regin Joensen also ran the 400 m in the pouring rain. Steingrímur set a big personal best, knocking almost two seconds off his old one, and crossed the line in 56.01 sec. Regin ran the first half of his 400 m rather cautiously and had a bit too much left when he finished. Better-judged pacing might perhaps have earned him a personal best, as with a time of 53.29 he was very close. Teitur Bjarnastein was also due to run the 400 m that day, but had a headache and a stomach ache.
Steingrímur Hallsson (here in the 400 m) improved by two seconds in both the 400 m and the 800 m.
On the Friday, Teitur and Steingrímur ran the 800 m. Teitur wasn’t entirely satisfied with his time of 2:04.86 min, which was a second slower than last year. Steingrímur, however, was delighted with his new PB, which is now 2:06.43 min. Despite these times being good by Faroese standards, both finished in the back half of the 54 runners. But next year they will be among the older ones in the age group. This summer Regin has focused more on sprinting, and on the Sunday his 200 m was on the programme. Here, too, it was a respectable performance, right up against his PB. His time was 24.10 seconds.
Regin Joensen winning his 400 m heat.
Things looked very good for Teitur Bjarnastein up to 600 m, but then he ran out of steam.
