Machine-translated from Faroese and not yet reviewed. Read the original.
Yesterday we wrote about the incredibly impressive record that Marnar Djurhuus set in Copenhagen on Saturday. But Marnar was not the only one running fast. The women’s race also produced a Faroese record. Valborg Heinesen, who won gold in both the 10,000 m and the half marathon in Bermuda, has taken yet another step towards the top. Although Valborg was not part of the World Championship race itself, she managed to beat 10 World Championship runners. And just as Marnar beat two of the three Icelanders, Valborg did the same. She also came very close to catching the leading Icelandic woman.
Even and sensible running all the way laid the foundation for a crushing record. Valborg’s time was 1:20:57, but for records it is the gross time that counts. Because it took Valborg 22 seconds to reach the start line after the starting gun, the new record stands at 1:21:19. That is a full three minutes faster than the old record, which Valborg herself set in Prague shortly before the Island Games last year.
Bjørk Herup Olsen also managed to beat that time on Saturday. She has not trained much lately and was unsure until the very last moment whether she would run at all. Even so, she managed to run under Valborg’s old record time. It is now hard to be a pessimist when thoughts turn to the team competition in the half marathon at the next Island Games.
A focused Valborg races through the streets of Copenhagen and takes a big chunk off the old Faroese half marathon record
Valborg’s splits for each 5 kilometres were 19:15 – 19:20 – 19:19 – 19:02, and 4:03 for the final 1.1 km. Very well run, especially considering the many runners on the road, which make it hard to run at an even pace. Valborg finished 4th of the 767 women in the 25–29 age group (not counting the elite field) and 92nd of all 9,448 women, and that includes the elite field! Bjørk Herup Olsen finished second of 348 in the 20–24 age group and 105th of all the women.
There is little doubt that both of them will improve their times. It is very, very encouraging to have two such strong young women on the Faroese national team.
FÍF warmly congratulates Valborg on the record, and at the same time we wish them both the best of luck going forward.
Bjørk also got under the old record. (archive photo -KG PHOTOS)
