On tour with Tórur

Machine-translated from Faroese and not yet reviewed. Read the original.

Heri Ziska and Tórur Mortensen have made many sporting trips abroad together. The first trips were to Reykjavík for Stórmót IR and to the training camps in Växjö. Later also to VU-Spelen and DM Ung. Since Tórur became part of Úrval in 2015, the trips have become even more frequent: the senior DM, NM U20 and a training camp in Spain.

Heri Ziska made Hallur Simonsen the best discus thrower in the Faroe Islands, and had to step down from the throne himself. Now he has made Tórur Mortensen one of the very best youth triple jumpers in the Nordic countries.

His progress during this time has been outstanding, and Tórur has now been selected for Dansk Atletikforbund’s national squad. This squad is for those who have a chance of going to the European Championships, the World Championships and other exciting international competitions. One of these competitions is the European U20 Championships next summer. If Tórur is selected, he will be the first Faroese athlete to compete at a European Championships. (and that’s not counting veterans 😉 )

This weekend they are at a joint training session in Aalborg, together with the entire Danish national squad and their coaches. These training gatherings take place regularly throughout the year. It is, however, somewhat difficult for Faroese athletes to travel so far for training, so Heri and Tórur, in consultation with DAF, are expected to pick out certain training camps.

Tórur has won FM, DM and NM medals in 2016. Here he has won gold at DM Ung last year.

For the triple jump, European Athletics has set a minimum standard of 14.90 metres. With 15.03 metres at DM in September, Tórur has already met this standard. But Dansk Atletikforbund also sets its own standards, and they are often tougher than EA’s. That is the case here too. DAF demands a “whole half” metre more than EA, so Tórur’s European Championships standard is 15.40 metres. That is nevertheless “only” 37 centimetres further than Tórur has already jumped, so with a good winter of training, coach Heri Ziska expects it should be possible to achieve. The Danish national coach can also see that Tórur can become an even better jumper.

DAF’s national squad training sessions are not only for the athletes but also for the athletes’ coaches. This means that DAF and each individual coach can together draw up both training plans and plans for the whole competition season.