Machine-translated from Faroese and not yet reviewed. Read the original.
In recent weeks we have had an exciting guest in the Faroe Islands. Most people are exciting in one way or another, of course, but for runners this is a very interesting guest. One Saturday morning when I was out on a cross-country run in Hoydalar, a young woman in jeans and an anorak came running towards me at high speed. I didn’t recognise her running style, but I was struck by her speed and her light carriage. Who was this? Well, the young woman told me who she was, and was keen to know whether there was a running club in town.
She explained that she is an orienteer and that she likes best of all to run out in nature, away from the asphalt. I told her about Bragdið and Hvirlan, pointed out towards Nólsoy, and said that you could take the ferry there and run south to Borðan. The following Tuesday she turned up at Bragdið’s club training session, where she outran everyone. Men and women alike. Afterwards she said that she had been in Nólsoy the Sunday before, and that the storm down at Borðan had nearly knocked her off her feet. The Saturday after that were the Faroese Cross-Country Championships, and here she really showed what she is made of. Of all the participants, only Marnar Djurhuus managed to beat her. A real feat!
Cross-country and round 5 of the Winter Series (VK5) in Hoydalar. Only Marnar Djurhuus beat Emma
But who is Emma Klingenberg? If you google the name, you can see straight away that she is not just anyone. In recent years she has been among the world’s best orienteers. Her breakthrough came in 2008, when somewhat unexpectedly she became junior world champion in the sprint. Since then she has won two World Cup races, and is otherwise a regular in the top 10. In 2013 she won the Danish Championships in both the long and short distances, and when the year was over she was also voted orienteer of the year in Denmark. Her goal for 2014 is a medal at the World Championships, which take place in the autumn. Her best results at the World Championships so far are a 6th and a 7th place.
Map, compass, a clear head and full speed – Emma could never have dreamt of running anything other than orienteering
21-year-old Emma is the eldest of four siblings who are very close in age. They grew up in Assens on Funen. Her mother, who is Northern Irish, her father and all the siblings do orienteering, and they have represented the club Faaborg OK. Her younger sister is, like Emma herself, very talented, and is also on a Danish youth national team. After upper secondary school, Emma moved to Århus to run with the best, and one of the biggest, clubs in Denmark, OK Pan. She lives close to the forest where she trains, and it is also a short distance to the Team Danmark centre, where she can seek advice and treatment for anything she needs. Emma has, you see, come under the wing of Team Danmark. This is part of her drive to climb even higher in the world elite. All the way to the top.
In the World Cup, Emma is among the very strongest.
Orienteering is divided into three disciplines: sprint, middle and long distance. The sprint usually takes place in an urban setting and lasts about 15 minutes. This is where Emma has shown such great talent and has achieved her best results. But her true love is the longer distances in the forests. And now the time has come to move once again. The Swedish forests and the elite environment around Stockholm are a natural part of her further development. The goal is a medal at the next World Championships, which take place this autumn.
Those of us who deal with running every day think a lot about kilometres and times. But orienteers don’t. I asked Emma about her best time over 10 kilometres, but for good reason she didn’t know it. She simply didn’t have a 10 km time! But in the autumn of 2011 she ran a test over 5000 metres, and her result was 16:51 min!!
Results like that don’t come by themselves, not even when the talent is so brilliant. Training, training and more training is Emma’s daily diet. From Monday to Friday she trains twice a day, and weekends are spent either at competitions or at training camps with the national team or with her club team. Even though a lot of energy goes into strength training, it is still hard to avoid injuries. Like most other top runners, Emma has also been through lengthy spells of injury. For a whole year she had serious problems with inflammation of the Achilles tendon. Inflammation in the shin has also played up, and in the spring of 2012 she also suffered a stress fracture in her foot.
Emma crosses the finish line as number 1 in the world’s biggest orienteering relay, JUKOLA in Finland. Her triumphant teammates right on her heels
Emma stresses that alternative training during periods of injury is absolutely crucial. She has cycled, aqua-jogged, swum and worked out on the cross-trainer to the very highest standard. She says that after the fracture in her foot had healed after six weeks, it was as if she was in at least as good shape as before.
After six weeks of work placement at the school at Argjahamar, Emma returns to Denmark on Wednesday. She takes with her a wealth of experiences from Faroese nature. She has run out to Borðan, between Saksun and Tjørnuvík, walked from Bøur to Gásadalur, visited Kunoy and spent a weekend on Mykines. With Faroese soil on her shoes and under her nails, Emma is leaving, but she promises that she will come back to visit the Faroe Islands. The Faroe Islands are one friend richer.
Emma has fallen head over heels for the Faroese mountains. Here on her way down to Gásadalur
