Machine-translated from Faroese and not yet reviewed. Read the original.
Tomorrow the Faroese Half Marathon Championships take place in Klaksvík, where 130 Faroese runners will test themselves. But our best runner is not taking part. Marna Egholm will instead be running for the Nordic title in the 10,000 m on Saturday at 12:00. The race takes place at Skovvang Stadion in Allerød, a little north of Copenhagen.
Four Danish, one Finnish, one Norwegian and three Swedish women will be Marna’s opposition. Besides these 10 women, a Kenyan woman will also be running as pacemaker.
Marna photographed just before she went to bed at 21:00. She looks ready!
Had Marna not been representing the Faroe Islands in this race, it is quite likely that she would have run for the Danish national team. In any case, it looks as though Marna should have a good chance of beating three of the four Danish runners. The fourth, Simone Glad, is the big favourite to win the race. Together with the Kenyan pacemaker, she will aim for 32:15, which is the Danish Olympic qualifying standard for Rio. If that fails, a time of 32:55 is no disaster, as it qualifies her for the European Championships, which will be held in Amsterdam this summer.
Denmark’s Simone Glad (front) is the big favourite on Saturday. Here she wins the Nordic 10,000 m Championships in 2013.
The Finn, the Norwegian and the strongest of the Swedish women are probably a bit too strong for Marna to beat, but the other two Swedes are of roughly the same standard as Marna, so she will be keeping a very close eye on those two. If everything goes according to plan on a good day, fourth place is within reach.
The Danish 10,000 m Championships are incorporated into this race. And as a member of Sparta, Marna is therefore also part of the Danish Championships competition. Here it looks as though Marna has a good chance of securing a Danish Championships medal of some kind. Now that Marna has moved up into the 35+ age group, a medal can also be won in that category, so Marna has plenty to run for tomorrow.
The prospects of a Faroese record are also quite good. Marna herself holds the Faroese record, 36:48.24, set at the Island Games in Jersey, where she won silver. As recently as March, Marna won bronze at the Danish 10 km Road Championships, and her time there was much better, namely 35:17.
But the bearskin is not for sale just yet. First the bear has to be shot, and we hope the gun is well loaded when Marna stands ready on the start line at 12:00 on Saturday alongside the best women in the Nordic countries.
FÍF wishes Marna the best of luck, and we also send our greetings to all the half marathon runners with wishes for a good race.
Photos
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