7 – who was Albert Marni?

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

If we look at the list of Faroese men’s running records, we see that one name comes up again and again. 800 m, 1,000m, 1,500 m, 2,000 m, 3,000 m, 5,000 m, 400 m hurdles, 3,000 m steeplechase and 10 km on the road. The vast majority of his records were set in the years 1992-94, when Albert Marni, or Marni as he is known in the Faroe Islands, was at his best. The last time we saw Marni more or less at the top was in 1997, when he represented the Faroe Islands at the Island Games in Jersey. But that is a long time ago now, and because Marni has lived in Denmark for most of those years, very few of our young people know anything about Marni beyond a name on the records list, and perhaps also on the results list for the Ólavsøka Run, which he usually takes part in when he is home in the summer.

But who was Marni? Marni grew up in the west end of Tórshavn and was very keen on handball. He was playmaker on a superb Neistin youth team that won the Faroese Championships every year; they were the older age group. After upper secondary school Marni went to a sports college in Århus, and there he met Hans Henrik Christensen, a running coach who would later become his regular coach, and later still also Guttorm Sørensen’s.

Marni on a trip with the Island Games team in 1991

After sports college Marni spent a year in the Faroe Islands. That year handball was once again on the agenda, but in 1989 he went down to Århus to study medicine, and that was when the running started in earnest. The first Island Games he took part in were in Åland in 1991. Despite very good results in the 800 and 1,500 m, this counted for little against the strong opposition. That year may well have been the strongest ever for middle-distance running at the Island Games. 13 of the fifteen runners were under 2:00 in the 800 m, but with 1:58.89 he went out with 6th place in the heat, and in the 1,500 m he had to settle for 8th place in the straight final, even though his time was as good as 4:01.

Gutti, Hjalti and Marni taking part in the 1900 relay in the early 90s. This is not Movember, but of their own free will.

Two years later Marni had moved on to slightly longer distances, and on the Isle of Wight he was to run the 3,000 m steeplechase and the 5,000 m. Before the Island Games Marni had run 14:55 min for the 5,000, so hopes were high for a medal. As they went into the last lap, there were three of them battling for places 2-4. We knew Marni was fast, so we still had high hopes. But the others also turned out to be fast men, and although Marni ran the last lap in around 60 seconds, he had to settle for 4th place in a time of 14:57. A time that would have won a medal at any other Island Games – gold too.

Then came the 3,000 m steeplechase. Here too there were several strong runners, and Marni could not keep up with the leaders, but towards the end he did manage to secure a reasonably safe third place. But then disaster struck. The last time over the water jump ended with his head in the water. Marni tried to scramble up and get going again, but the fourth man was now closing fast. Fortunately Marni was so quick about it that he managed to hold on to his third place, and with it win his first Island Games medal.

After this Marni decided to focus on the steeplechase, and in the summer of 1994 Marni won bronze at the Danish Championships in a time of 9:08 min. This is not only a Faroese record, but the result that counts for the most of all Faroese athletics results, if we look at the IAAF scoring tables.

Marni always has plenty to talk about. Here he is on board the ferry on the way to Åland in 1991

Unfortunately the heavy steeplechase training ended in a very serious knee injury, which put a stop to the then 26-year-old Marni. He missed the Island Games in Gibraltar, and not until 1996-97 did things slowly start to look up again, and Marni made it to the Island Games in Jersey. This time it was the 10,000 m and the ½ marathon, which was the first event of the Games. Marni stayed with the leaders for a long time, but became dehydrated towards the end. He came staggering onto the track in third place, with 500 metres to run. By then he was moving slowly, and he remembers nothing of it. But he reached the finish, where he collapsed and was taken for treatment, where he was put on a saline drip. He was of course very disappointed to have lost the bronze, but suddenly there was cheering, because it now turned out that the Faroese team had won bronze in a very close contest with Jersey and Shetland. So this was some consolation, and yet another Island Games medal. Marni never really recovered, and in the 10,000 m he pulled out with some 2,000 m to go.

Marni is today a consultant cardiologist at the hospital in Aalborg. He still runs a little, and is a member of Aalborg Atletikklub.

Marni is often to be seen at the Ólavsøka Run – here in 2013