Machine-translated from Faroese and not yet reviewed. Read the original.
On Saturday the Faroe Islands were represented at the Nordic Cross-Country Championships for the fourth time. In the first three years we had one woman taking part each year: Valborg Heinesen in Reykjavík in 2014, and Marna Egholm in Gothenburg in 2015 and Kristiansand in 2016. This time it was judged that the young girls from Treysti, Oddvør Josephsen and Maria Biskopstø, had the best chances in the battle against the very best Nordic runners.
Lined up for the start. The Faroe Islands had to share a starting box with Iceland, and so only Maria got a place in the front row. Oddvør can be seen behind Iceland’s Andrea Kolbeinsdóttir, who finished 13th.
The junior girls had to be under 20, so 16-year-old Oddvør and 15-year-old Maria were at the younger end, and they also had a hard time against the older and stronger girls. It was also very hard going on the 4.5 km course, where the surface was soaking wet long grass, muddy patches, hills and a multitude of turns.
Maria on the downhill. But it was slippery on the way down, and many fell on the bends
A total of 20 girls were entered for the Nordic Championships race, but the Danish winter series was also part of this race, so our runners also got to test themselves against the broad Danish elite. This gave our girls a much better race, because against the other national team runners there was no contest. Maria and Oddvør therefore mostly ended up battling with Danish girls who were not on the national team. Maria finished 27th overall and Oddvør 32nd out of a total of 43 runners.
Oddvør battled well and overtook several of the Danish winter series runners
The race took place in Middelfart in the magnificent landscape down towards Fænø Sund, and the course ran between the cabins where all the participants were staying. This worked extremely well, and the race was very well organised in every way. Next year the Nordic Cross-Country Championships will be held in Iceland. Hopefully we will then have runners who can challenge the best Nordic runners.
After the race the runners got to have their photo taken with the chair. The photos were taken by Karin Kirke Petersen. She was also team leader on the trip
The Danish triathlete Alberte Kjær won this Nordic Championships race, and together with her teammates Anna Mark Helwig and Laura Valgreen Petersen, Denmark also won the team competition.
All the results can be seen HERE
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