Machine-translated from Faroese and not yet reviewed. Read the original.
Once again this year, several athletes from Bragdið, Hvirlan and Treysti travelled to the big indoor competition Stórmót ÍR in Reykjavík. But never before have the Faroese come home with as many gold medals as this year. That we Faroese can beat the Icelanders at this time of year is quite simply a feat. While the Icelanders have indoor halls in both Reykjavík and Hafnarfjörður, young Faroese athletes trudge through slush and darkness for much of the winter. That doesn’t hold them back, though, and over the weekend they proved that we have some incredibly strong athletes in our sport.
No fewer than eight gold medals came home. The young girls from Treysti won five, Katarina Høj from Bragdið won two and Tórur Mortensen from Hvirlan won one. It was very pleasing that in Birita Ryan we now have another sprinter who can take on the best. Of the 35 girls in the Girls 13 60 metres, Birita had the fastest time in the heats and set an age-group record. In the final, however, she had to settle for silver. But in the 200 metres she won comfortably with another age-group record. And in the long jump she won yet another gold, a full 22 cm ahead of second place. Her longest jump was 4.56, which is also an age-group record.
Katarina Høj from Bragdið also won two gold medals. Katarina competes in the Girls 16–17 category. The 800 metres went especially well for her, and with a time of 2:16.44 she was a full 11 seconds ahead of her nearest rival. The time is so good that it also puts her top of the Danish rankings for 17-year-olds. The result is also well inside the Island Games qualifying time. The 1500 m was closer, and here it took a good sprint finish to win. 4:52.39 is Katarina’s best indoor time, but she has run faster outdoors.
Gutsy Katarina came home with two gold medals!
We also got two Faroese records. In the men’s 800 metres, Rúni Seloy finally got the breakthrough, running the fastest time of his career, having set his outdoor PB in 2009. Rúni competed against the men and ended up in a tough battle for silver, which he narrowly lost. But he was delighted when he heard his time. His best time ever and at the same time a new Faroese record: 1:56.51 min. The previous indoor record was held by Rúni himself.
The other record was set by Edna Maria Debes from Hvirlan in the triple jump. In fact, she set a new Faroese record no fewer than four times in the same competition, in which she finished third in the women’s event. Edna Maria’s series looked like this: 9.80 – X – 9.91 – 10.01 – 10.27 – 9.28. Marita K. Petersen held the old record, which was 9.46 m.
Tórur Mortensen from Hvirlan is one of those who receive elite funding from the Faroese Confederation of Sports (ÍSF). Over the weekend he proved that he is a good investment. He won the triple jump convincingly by almost a full metre, with two jumps of 13.08 m, just 22 cm short of the Island Games qualification standard. In the long jump he led the competition right up until the penultimate round. He finished third, but with a new personal best of 6.25 metres, just 5 cm short of the Island Games qualification standard. Very promising from a 16-year-old! And we mustn’t forget that in the 60 metres Tórur had the second-fastest time in the heats with 7.50 sec. He did not, however, take part in the final. Tórur competes in the Boys 17 category.
Katarina Høj is not the only one at the top of the Danish rankings. Óluva Allansdóttir Joensen from Treysti achieved some outstanding results last summer in both the javelin and the shot put. The javelin is not an event at Stórmót, but she won the shot put very comfortably. 12-year-old Óluva, who competes in Girls 13, put the shot 11.80 metres!
Finally, the two determined girls from Treysti, Oddvør Josephsen and Maria Biskopstø, also won gold. Maria won the Girls 13 600 m. Here she won comfortably in 1:46.09, which was nevertheless just a little too slow to take the age-group record that Oddvør set last year. Oddvør now competes in Girls 14 and was involved in a very close and exciting sprint finish, which she eventually came out on top of. Her time was as good as 2:26.20 min, and she thereby took two seconds off Katarina Høj’s age-group record.
Oddvør won gold in a very exciting sprint finish in the 800 m, while Maria’s win in the 600 m was fairly comfortable.
Steintór Egholm from Bragdið also had very good results in Boys 15, winning silver in both the 400 and 800 metres. His times were 55.97 in the 400 and 2:16.35 in the 800 m.
Unfortunately, several athletes missed some of their events. The flight that was due to leave on Friday was cancelled because of the weather, so the Hvirlan and Bragdið group did not arrive in Reykjavík until around 1 o’clock, by which time several events had already taken place. This was a great shame. On the other hand, it sounds as though everyone had a good weekend in Reykjavík, and at FÍF we are delighted with the good performances and warmly congratulate everyone on their results.
The results were not only good but also numerous, so it would take too long to mention them all.
They can be seen here: http://46.149.29.198/motfri/SelectedCompetitionResults.aspx
(enter e.g. “bragdið” or “hvirlan” or “treysti” in the search function. Then you will find all the Faroese results.
