Machine-translated from Faroese and not yet reviewed. Read the original.
In the 90s the Faroe Islands had several strong male runners who did well in the tough competition at the Island Games. In recent years only Marnar Djurhuus has had the level to offer on the longer distances. On the other hand, we have several strong women who are even at the very top when it comes to the Island Games. Several of them are in good form, and this past weekend no fewer than three Faroese women really made their mark. Both in Denmark and further afield.
The newest Faroese rising star is no longer Valborg Heinesen. Over the last half year another strong female name has emerged. It is 33-year-old Marna Egholm from Leirvík, who is studying in Copenhagen and runs for Sparta. On Sunday, however, she had travelled all the way to Aalborg, where the Fjordmarathon was organised for the sixth year in a row.
There are four different distances in this race, which is run around the Limfjord. The more than 2,000 runners could choose between 1/8, 1/4, ½ or the full marathon. Marna, who is preparing for the Berlin Marathon on 28 September, was among the 878 half marathon runners. It soon became clear that she was by far the strongest woman, and she ended up running alone for a large part of the course.
Marna Egholm is yet another Faroese super-woman!
Marna managed to keep up such an even, good pace all the way that when she crossed the finish line she had improved the course record on the DAF-certified course by a minute and a half. Marna’s time was 1:23:25, which would have been a Faroese record as recently as March this year. The time is even better than it looks, because the race was run on very varied surfaces. Grass fields, gravel paths, through dense scrub and, on top of that, many small hills along the shore. All this undoubtedly cost her an even better time. It will be very exciting to see what Marna can achieve in Berlin.
Borgarhjørt Holm also won a big running race in Denmark at the weekend. On Saturday there was a women’s run in Bramming, and Borgarhjørt was one of 299 women who ran the shorter distance, 4.9 kilometres. Borgarhjørt covered the course in 19:52, and here too it was the Faroese runner who thrashed the rest, as there were almost two minutes to the next runner. This is not the first race Borgarhjørt has won. In almost every race in South Jutland she ends up somewhere on the podium, and in her 45+ age group gold is practically guaranteed.
Despite being 48 years old, Borgarhjørt Holm is still maintaining a high level
The third top Faroese result this weekend was the best of all, even though it did not bring a win. Valborg Heinesen had been allowed to compete for the Polish half marathon title. She has studied in Poland for seven years, and her Polish coach managed to arrange things so that Valborg could compete for the Polish championship title. And she did so outstandingly! In 27-degree heat she was only a few seconds off breaking her own Faroese record. The aim was to break it, but the heat spoiled things. Nevertheless she ran very evenly and kept moving up as the race went on. With a time of 1:21:37 she ran her way to a fine 8th place in the open race and an even finer 5th place in the race for the Polish championship title.
Valborg is also training towards a marathon. She will also be competing for the Danish marathon title when she runs the H.C. Andersen Marathon in Odense on 28 September.
Valborg Heinesen (64) finished fifth in the race for the Polish half marathon title
FÍF warmly congratulates all three on their excellent results!
Link to Marna’s results: http://www.fjordmarathon.com/resultater/
Link to Borgarhjørt’s results: https://app.events4u.dk/event/2014-storgaard-biler-toeseloeb/results?category=RACE-4km
Link to Valborg’s results: http://www.pila.halfmarathon.pl/w2014/2_OPEN_21km.pdf
