Rebekka won bronze in a real thriller

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

…but first we can report that the women’s 4×100 team has made the final. This is because the women from the Cayman Islands were later disqualified for an infringement.

Back to Rebekka, who has shown good form all spring and summer and has focused so much on the competitions at the Island Games. In 2015 she won her first Island Games medal at her fourth Games, when she took silver in the 800 metres.

The women’s middle-distance races have been very strong at recent Games, and now yet another strong runner from Orkney had joined the field. Anna Tait was the favourite to win today’s 1,500 metres.

Rebekka is just one of several top runners, ready for a hard race in the 1,500 m

There was no messing about in today’s race. Anna Tait went straight to the front, and the strong women followed. The pace was quite high, and when Anna opened a small gap, the others knew they were racing for silver and bronze.

Rebekka was well in the race and also looked to be running easily. Four of them ended up fighting for silver and bronze. With 300 metres to go, Rebekka made her move and tried to run away from the others. She got a little way clear, but the gap began to close again, and the 2015 winner, Rachel Franklin, moved back past Rebekka, who now had to fight with everything she had to keep the speed in her legs.

Rebekka has broken away in the fight for silver. These turned out to be the toughest 250 metres of her life

As she ran down towards the finish line, her legs stiffened more and more, and in the stands we feared she would lose the bronze on the line. Fortunately, Gemma Dawkins in fourth place was just as stiff-legged and full of lactic acid as Rebekka, and the roars of triumph from the Faroese spectators were tremendous when we saw Rebekka cross the finish line in third.

This was a fantastically exciting race that took us through the whole range of emotions. But it wasn’t over yet. Could this be a Faroese record? It was close, at any rate. We waited anxiously for the final result. And it was a new Faroese record. 4:30.20 was half a second faster than her time at the VU-spelen last year.

The slip is examined with excitement. The slip says to report to the medal ceremony

As early as midday tomorrow Rebekka will be in action again, when she runs the heats of the 800 metres. We hope Rebekka gets enough rest that she can run her way into the final.

We warmly congratulate Rebekka on her bronze and wish her and Oddvør the best of luck in the 800 metres tomorrow.

Rachel Franklin, Anna Tait, Rebekka Fuglø and the whole crowd listen to the Orcadian anthem

Photos