The Faroe Islands in European Masters?

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

Usain Bolt fell, Mo Farah won, and now they are running the marathon. The World Championships are under way, and the stadium in London is packed with spectators for both the morning and evening sessions. But London is not the only place hosting international athletics these days. In Århus, today is the last day of the European Championships for masters athletes, a competition that began on 27 July and ends today, 6 August.

3,800 masters athletes from all over Europe have been competing over these days, and among them are a few Faroese. We will cover their sporting achievements in a separate article. What these Faroese athletes all have in common, though, is that they have to buy Danish national team kit to compete in.

Regin Thomsen, FÍF board member, was one of the Faroese participants. A selfie before the half marathon this morning

There are, however, some signs that this may be the last time Faroese athletes go to the European Masters Championships in Danish colours. FÍF is now working towards getting the Faroe Islands membership of European Masters Athletics (EMA).

These talks have come about mainly through the Norwegian Kalle Glomsaker. His many years in Norsk Friidrett and EMA are now working to our advantage. He encouraged the Faroese to come down to the European Championships and show our interest.

From the visit last year. Kalle Glomsaker is the man in the middle. (Left: Ole Petter Sandvik; right: Svein Arne Hansen)

So the undersigned and Guttorm Sørensen went to Århus, where on Sunday morning we attended the general assembly with observer status. It was an interesting and lengthy 5.5-hour meeting, and during the break we also had the chance to say hello to the Australian who is president of WMA (World Masters Athletics)

Dansk Atletikforbund (DAF) will of course have to be on board if the Faroese are to have any hope of EMA membership. So there was also a meeting with the DAF chair, Karsten Munkvad, and the chair of DAF’s masters committee, Knud Høyer.

DAF chair Karsten Munkvad, seated, and on the right Knud Høyer, chair of the Danish Masters committee

We also had an exclusive meeting with EMA president Kurt Kaschke, who seems very positive about Faroese membership. As yet, no “non-UN country” has membership of EMA, so it is by no means a given; rather, it will take persistent pressure for this to succeed.

The friendly EMA president Kurt Kaschke showed his goodwill and was dressed in an FÍF top
Der sympatische und starke Präsident EMA’s, zusammen mit seiner neue färöische Freunde

The married couple Inge Faldager and Knud Høyer. Both are among the world elite and have won countless World and European Championship medals, especially in the throwing events. Knud is also chair of the Danish Masters committee under DAF. In 2012 they were in the Faroe Islands and trained with the young athletes at Hvirlan

As things stand, we already have the option of competing as Faroese at the Nordic Championships. On 6–8 July next year we will have a good opportunity to show the Faroese colours, when the Nordic Championships take place in Borås, Sweden. (50 km from Gothenburg)

There is a great deal going on in the masters age groups, and FÍF has long wanted a subcommittee that can coordinate this whole area. These are just some of the upcoming competitions.

• 10 Sept. 2017 European Marathon Championships, Wroclaw, Poland
• 19–24 March 2018 European Indoor Championships in Madrid, Spain
• 6–8 July 2018 Nordic Outdoor Championships, Borås, Sweden (can compete as Faroese)
• 5–15 Sept. 2019 European Outdoor Championships, Venice, Italy

EMA is for everyone. Here we meet Rosa Pedersen, who has just won the gold medals in long jump and shot put. She is 87 years old and competes in the 85–89 age group.

We also met familiar faces from the Island Games. On the left is Jorma Jaaskelainen from Gotland, watching the triple jump final in which Mattias Sunneborn jumped. On the right we have met the Isle of Wight team manager, Nick Groocock, who proved to be very strong over 400 m.