Machine-translated from Faroese and not yet reviewed. Read the original.
The Olympics have now been under way for a week, but for many of us the Olympics don’t really begin until today, when the athletics events start. No Faroese athlete is competing in athletics this time, but even so our best athletes have exciting challenges ahead. The Faroese Senior Track and Field Championships take place on 20 and 21 August, but already this weekend the Faroe Islands’ best triple jumper has an exciting challenge in Iceland.
17-year-old Tórur Mortensen has been selected by Dansk Atletikforbund for the Danish U20 national team, which will take part in an international match against the other Nordic countries. Each country has two athletes in each event. Denmark and Iceland have a joint national team and therefore have one athlete each in every event. Tórur is clearly the strongest name on the Danish ranking list in the triple jump, and was therefore an automatic choice for the joint Denmark and Iceland team.
Tórur’s training has gone very well recently, and hopes of a good result at the Nordic Championships are high. (photo: Hvirlan)
The competition, which takes place at Kaplakriki in Hafnarfjörður, is organised as both an international match and an individual competition. Sweden, Finland, Norway and Denmark/Iceland are taking part in the international match. There will therefore be eight participants in each event. Tórur was also selected for this competition last year. That time it did not go so well. Tórur had a minor injury and therefore did not jump to his best.
But since then Tórur has moved a long way forward. His golden jump in Gothenburg this summer has really given Tórur a name that is known beyond our shores. Indeed, two weeks ago he would have been ranked among the very best for the Nordic Championships. But recently his rivals have clearly shown that they too are training hard and want to improve. Almost all the participants arrive in Hafnarfjörður with fresh personal bests. And they are extremely evenly matched:
- Arttu Tyystjärvi, Finland 15.40 m
- Veikko Nugraha, Finland, 15.04 m
- Marcus Nyberg, Sweden, 14.99 m
- Erik Lund, Norway, 14.99 m
- Erlend Bolstad Raa, Norway, 14.98 m
- Tórur Mortensen, Denmark/Iceland, 14.94 m
- Christoffer Pool-Wiklund, Sweden 14.87 m
- Guðmundur Smári Daníelsson, Denmark/Iceland 12.94 m
Only 17 centimetres separate the Finn and the Swede who are ranked number two and seven. And in between is Tórur, who should definitely see a chance of a medal. Time after time Tórur has shown that he is at his best when it matters most. Hopefully he will manage to live up to the 14.94 m jump that gave him victory at VU-Spelen.
Over the last four years Tórur has made huge progress every year. Roughly one metre has been added each year, and this is the result of hard and focused training under the guidance of Heri Ziska, who will also be present in Iceland during the competition. The two of them travel over today, Friday. The international match takes place on both Saturday and Sunday. The triple jump competition is on Sunday at 12:05. You can follow it on the website of the Icelandic athletics federation, Frjælsítróttasamband Íslands, www.fri.is.
FÍF wishes Tórur the best of luck at the Nordic Championships.
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