Machine-translated from Faroese and not yet reviewed. Read the original.
This evening was one of the races where we expected a medal, and we knew it could be of the most precious metal awarded in sport.
Marna Egholm and 10 other tense women were sent on their way in the 10,000 metres today at 17:00. Several very strong runners were in the field, but whatever the circumstances, we felt Marna had a chance of winning.
Our strongest runner at the moment is Marna Egholm
The start was fairly steady, but then Hannah Howard of the Isle of Man moved to the front. The pace rose a little and settled at around 3:45 min/km. That works out at a finishing time of 37:30, which is a bit too slow to wear down Marna’s toughest rivals, but fine for a start.
The whole field stayed together until 5,000 metres. Then Marna had had enough. She picked up the pace and took the lead. The field stretched out at once, and soon there were only three at the front: Sandison from Shetland and Louise Perrio of Guernsey. Sandison soon had to let go, and then the duel began between the Faroe Islands and Guernsey, between Egholm and Perrio.
We remember Perrio, among other things, from the Island Games in Åland in 2009, when she won gold just ahead of our own Súsanna Skylv Sørensen, and from 2011, when she sprinted away from Bjørk H. Olsen on the last lap to win gold. So we knew very well that this was a very quick lady Marna had in tow.
The pace now dropped towards 3:30 min/km, and lap after lap Marna tried to shake off the Guernsey runner. Perrio did everything she could to stick to Marna’s back, while Marna in turn tried a few very fast laps now and then. But it did no good. And so the tension was at its height as they went out on the last lap. Marna kept increasing the pace all the way towards the finish line, but with only 50 metres to go Perrio came up alongside Marna and slowly went past. Both had given everything they had, and although Marna ran the last lap in 75 seconds, even she could not stop Perrio, who won yet another gold in the 10,000 m.
This was the picture throughout the second half of the women’s 10,000 m.
Marna’s time today was 36:30, which is 18 seconds faster than in Jersey two years ago, but half a minute off her Faroese record. This was the fifth time the Faroe Islands have won silver in the women’s 10,000 m: Sunniva Bjarnastein in 1999, Súsanna Skylv Sørensen in 2009, Bjørk H. Olsen in 2011 and Marna Egholm in 2015 and 2017. Next time it will be gold.
We warmly congratulate Marna on her silver medal and wish her the best of luck in her races later in the week.
This morning Alda Sigurdsdóttir Lamhauge ran the 100 metres semi-final. Once again there was a strong headwind today. Alda, who ran in lane six in the second heat, got minus 4.6. And once again Alda made the most of it and ran right up to her very best. She was fourth across the line in her heat. In heat one, which had much less headwind, everyone was faster. That means Alda, who had the 10th best time going into the finals, kept her overall 10th place.
A thoroughly respectable result, and great fun for us, for the first time in a long while, to have women doing so well in the sprint events.
Alda has represented the Faroe Islands superbly at her first Games
The last race this evening was when Jan Elmar Sørensen ran the final of the 3,000 m steeplechase. Jan Elmar, who has been rather doubtful because of a calf injury, felt the injury straight away and ran in pain the whole way.
The pain was especially bad over the barriers, not least the water jump. It did not get any better when Jan Elmar accidentally caught a spike in the track and went sprawling full length right in front of a barrier. He slowly got back up, though, clambered over the barrier and carried on racing. The fall cost him some 15-20 seconds.
The result was of course far from what Jan Elmar had planned. With a time of 10:56.36, Jan Elmar finished seventh of the eight participants.
The injury meant Jan Elmar could not push off from the barrier, so he ended up in the deep end. This cost a lot of time.
Tomorrow we have only two races. But it will still be a very exciting day, because for the first time we will run a relay (4×100), and then we will see Rebekka Fuglø run the 1,500 m final. The schedule looks like this:
- 12:00 – 4×100 m women (Alda, Elisabet, Margit, Oddvør)
- 17:40 – 1,500 m women – Rebekka Fuglø
Photos
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