Machine-translated from Faroese and not yet reviewed. Read the original.
The Faroese Winter Series starts next Saturday, but the Danish Winter Series already got under way last Saturday with a cross-country race in Strib, near Middelfart. The whole Danish running elite usually competes in the Winter Series, and this time the race was also the basis for national team selection for the Nordic Cross-Country Championships, which take place in Finland next Saturday.
For us Faroese, the Danish Winter Series is very interesting now that we have two such strong runners taking part. For Valborg Heinesen and Marna Egholm, this was also a chance to run well enough to be selected for the Nordic Championships.
A large and no less strong field 1 second after the starting gun (photo: Kim Gudmand)
Both of them ran truly outstanding marathon times just four weeks ago, when Valborg finished third at the Danish Championships and Marna finished 20th at the Berlin Marathon. On the Danish marathon rankings they are now sixth and seventh, with only a very small gap to third place. Naturally it is difficult to be at your best so soon after a lot of marathon training, a hard marathon race and the rest that follows. But there were yet other problems that spoiled the day for the Faroese runners.
Marna in the Sparta kit does not look out of place among the best in Denmark (photo: Kim Gudmand)
On the Wednesday before the race, Valborg began, almost out of nowhere, to feel pain in one foot. It only got worse and worse, and the next day she could not put any weight on the foot, so going to the race was out of the question. She was very disappointed about this, because she had been looking forward to it a great deal and had hoped to run well enough to also represent the Faroe Islands in Finland.
Marna was also very unlucky. On the Tuesday before the race she had an accident. She was thrown off her bicycle and got grazes from the asphalt in several places on her body. On top of that she suffered a minor fracture in her arm – but she only found that out after the race. Marna is not at all used to cross-country running, and therefore started cautiously. The race was five laps of 1.5 km each – 7.5 km in total.
Marna gradually worked her way through the field (photo: Kim Gudmand)
The race was run on a grass field with some slopes and a hill. At first it was good running, but the grass soon turned to mud, and it became very heavy going. By the time the men ran afterwards, the whole course was more or less a mud bath. Marna gradually worked her way through the field and finished in 12th place. This was a good run by Marna, but there is no doubt that with more speed training she can move much further up.
There was no selection for the Nordic Championships this time, but in the spring there will be Nordic Championships over 10,000 metres, and then the Faroese women will again have a chance to fight their way to the Nordic Championships. We may also see Marna in a round or two of the Faroese Winter Series this winter.
Hopefully Valborg will soon be fit again. It will be exciting to follow the Danish Winter Series, where at best we could have three Faroese Sparta girls right at the front. Because besides Valborg and Marna, Bjørk H. Olsen also represents Sparta. Hopefully she too will be ready to compete towards the spring. This time the Sparta team finished in second place. Marna was Sparta’s second-best runner.
The men’s race was also exciting from a Faroese point of view, because the strongest there was our friend Tom Wade, whom we know from the Island Games. Tom Wade of the Isle of Wight is in a relationship with a Danish woman and therefore lives in Århus. It is not certain that Tom Wade will take part in the Island Games in Jersey. The steeplechaser is close to achieving the English qualification standard for the World Championships next summer. His strongest event is the 3,000 m steeplechase, and his standard for World Championships participation is 8:35 min. If he goes to the World Championships, the Isle of Wight will have to make do with his twin brother Jonathan Wade, who is also usually among the very best distance runners at the Island Games.
The results can be seen at this link: http://daf.sportstiming.dk/
The winner of the men’s race was Tom Wade, Isle of Wight, whom we know from the Island Games (photo: Kim Gudmand)
