Machine-translated from Faroese and not yet reviewed. Read the original.
It is not only in the Faroe Islands that national championships were held over the weekend. In Denmark, too, athletes competed on both Saturday and Sunday for Danish Championship titles in all athletics events. On Sunday there was Faroese participation in the 5000 m, where Valborg Heinesen lined up at the start. Valborg is otherwise in heavy training ahead of a marathon in September, but this was really just a small side step from her daily training.
On the day, though, things went incredibly well for Valborg. Simone Glad from Odense set off at the front straight away, as expected, and Valborg settled into fifth place at first together with three others. She had done her usual training on the Saturday, and her legs had felt heavy then. But on this day her legs felt fresh, and when the field spread out, Valborg managed to settle in behind Matilde Hegnsgaard, who was holding an even pace in second place. It was a pace that fitted Valborg like a glove. The two of them quickly opened a gap, and with that it became a straight contest for Danish Championships silver. That is how it stayed until 600 m remained. Valborg felt she had something in reserve and had begun to smell silver.
The Fjarðastevna meet was Valborg’s last race in the Faroe Islands, where she competed against Steingrímur and Dardus, among others.
So with 600 m to go, Valborg surged powerfully past and immediately opened a decent gap. It looked as though Matilde had got a stitch, but 600 metres can be a long way, and towards the end Matilde picked up momentum again and pushed hard towards the finish. Valborg just managed to withstand the pressure and crossed the line 62/100 of a second ahead to win a fine Danish Championships silver medal.
At the same time it was also a new Faroese record. Valborg took seven seconds off the record set by Bjørk Herup Olsen at a competition in Princeton in April 2012, when she ran the 5000 m in 17:37.04. Valborg’s time was 17:30.22 min.
Frælsur Ítróttur Føroya warmly congratulates Valborg on the record and on the silver medal.
The results from the Danish Championships can be found at this link: http://test.mars-net.dk/meet/ShowMeet.aspx?MeetId=1b4067d5-6df2-40c8-9510-68c574cc72a9
