Machine-translated from Faroese and not yet reviewed. Read the original.
For the past few days Jan Elmar Sørensen has been in Denmark, testing himself in races against stronger opposition than he is used to here in the Faroe Islands. It has been an unusually good year for Jan Elmar. Since his win in the TF Winter Series, his form has kept heading in the right direction. He secured the Island Games qualifying time at the World Half Marathon Championships in Cardiff. He then achieved another Island Games standard when he ran 15:49 over 5,000 metres at VU-Spelen. Jan Elmar then decided to travel down to take part in the so-called “Baneturneringen”, which most of the best Danish runners compete in: 3,000 m at Østerbro Stadion in Copenhagen on the evening of Thursday 4 August, and 5,000 m in Tårnby on the evening of Thursday 11 August.
Jan Elmar took in running with his father’s milk, so to speak, and is a runner with a great deal of experience
After a rather disappointing Ólavsøka Run, Jan Elmar was a little uncertain ahead of the 3,000 m race. But it turned out there was nothing to fear. The race went very well. The pace was right around 3:00 min/km, and a good final lap took him comfortably under 9 minutes. With 8:57.79, Jan Elmar is the eighth Faroese runner to go under nine minutes.
Jan Elmar, second from the left, ready for the start of the 3,000 m at Østerbro Stadion
On Thursday evening he raced in Tårnby. This time it was 5,000 metres, and the goal was to hit 15:30, or 20 seconds faster than at VU-Spelen in June. Once again everything went to plan. The first three kilometres were all exactly 3:06. Then came a 3:09, but again Jan Elmar managed to pick up the pace and finished with a 3:00 kilometre, so his final result was 15:27.91. This is such a good result that Jan Elmar is now the fourth-fastest Faroese runner ever over 5,000 metres!
Jan Elmar, in third place, running the 5,000 m at Tårnby Stadion
It will now be exciting to see whether Jan Elmar can improve even further over the coming winter. If he does, the distance races at the next Island Games will be fun to watch, because he will then certainly be right up at the sharp end. But first he has the Faroese Championships next weekend, where he will have the chance to build on his good results and try to put a Faroese title or two in the bag.
You must be logged in to post a comment.