Machine-translated from Faroese and not yet reviewed. Read the original.
On Saturday 26 January, shock spread through the whole Danish sporting world when marathon runner Henrik Jørgensen suffered a cardiac event on his daily run and died suddenly. The shock among runners here at home in the Faroe Islands was no smaller.
As recently as last spring, Jan Elmar Sørensen and Treysti invited Henrik Jørgensen and his family to the Faroe Islands for the Faroese ½ Marathon Championships. A social evening was organised, where Henrik talked about his running career, and his training plans in particular caused great astonishment. His daughter Anna, who is also an elite runner, also talked about her running career.
The Jørgensen family in Klaksvík in May 2018. His wife Mette was an elite runner, and their daughter Anna is one of the best distance runners in Denmark, and her goals include competing in the marathon at the Olympics in Tokyo 2020
These are not Henrik’s only connections to the Faroe Islands, however. In the eighties, our best runners got to know Henrik on a marathon trip to Germany and at races in Denmark.
Absalon Hansen, Faroese record holder in the marathon for 31 years, and Henrik Jørgensen, Danish record holder in the marathon for 33 years. Here on a marathon trip together in Germany.
And then there is his running friend Bent Povlsen, whom we know from so many Ólavsøka Runs in the Faroe Islands. Bent is married to a Faroese woman and is in the Faroe Islands almost every summer. As early as the eighties he won several Ólavsøka Runs, and even after he passed fifty, he has competed for the top places.
Bent and Henrik Jørgensen became both rivals and running friends in their youth. Running made them lifelong friends, and Bent has therefore asked FÍF to host his tribute to his friend Henrik Jørgensen. We are glad to do so:
In memory of Henrik Jørgensen.
Born 10 October 1961 – died 26 January 2019.
“Moving is life to me, and I’ll keep doing it until I drop.”
Quote: Henrik Jørgensen, 2016
Shock, grief and disbelief went through the Danish and international running world when the news of
Henrik Jørgensen’s death reached us on the morning of Sunday 27 January 2019. My friend Henrik died the day before of a cardiac arrest on a run from Sorthat-Muleby on his beloved Bornholm. Here, between the land, the coast and the forest, where the wind picks up speed and life is felt a little more intensely, he died while doing what he did best: running.
My story with Henrik goes back to the days of youth athletics in the early 1970s, when, as a 15-year-old running at meets around the Copenhagen area, I came across a tall, lanky lad from Herlev who reportedly ran very long distances in training. Since Henrik achieved no notable results at 13-15, he had to put up with our laughter and wisecracks such as: “You can always beat Henrik” and “Why do you run so far?”
But already at 17-18, our laughter started to stick in our throats. Henrik began to run fast. Really fast. The last time I beat Henrik in a race over 1,500 m was in a 3,000 m on 17 May 1978, when I had to run the race of my life to beat him. The Danish youth record that Henrik pushed me to that day has now stood for 41 years. From then on, all I saw were the soles of his shoes. Henrik Jørgensen’s running achievements should be well known:
First Dane under 13:30 min in the 5000 m
First Dane under 28:00 min in the 10,000 m
Nordic marathon record holder with 2:09:43 for almost 30 years
Winner of the London Marathon 1988 in 2:10:20
Competed at several Olympics, World Championships and European Championships
Countless Danish junior and youth records, which have now stood firm for over 40 years
When we were about 16-17, Henrik and I became friends. I thus got closer to the person behind
the running legend. I started visiting his home in Herlev, from where we ran long runs in Hareskoven, around Bagsværd Sø and in Utterslev Mose. It was on these runs, with Henrik in his headband and with flowing hair, that his unique personality and particular philosophy of life came through more and more.
Unlike many other sports stars, Henrik was settled and at peace with his sporting
achievements. He knew his body and knew what he could deliver. He did not seek to be
the centre of press attention, and was at times both shy and introverted. His
results and his enormous dedication to training naturally put him at the centre of the news, even though he did not always find the spotlight much fun. As a person he was at least as settled as he was on the track and the road. Helpful, empathetic, humble and genuinely interested in other people’s lives. My life, among others.
And it says a great deal about Henrik Jørgensen’s stature as a person that throughout his life
he managed to build on this interest in and involvement with other people’s lives. There was something magical about this solitary and at the same time deeply social running wolf in the forest with the headband.
A running legend, but at the same time a helpful and very positive person.
In 1982, Henrik and Mette, who were now a couple, and I moved into a 2½-room flat in
Copenhagen’s Nordvest district. There, all 3 of us ran ourselves silly with a feeling that anything was possible in this life. We were 20 and 21. I remember that time as one of the happiest periods of my life.
Bent Povlsen and Henrik Jørgensen at the Danish Road Running Championships in 2012. Bent ran the course in 34:26, which is usually more than enough to win the Danish title in the over-50 age group. But that year Henrik Jørgensen was taking part, and won in 33:26!!
After his Nordic record of 2:09:43 in the marathon and his win in London in 1988, Henrik was an
absolute world star, and the future looked bright and promising. That life can be changeable and
fragile was something both Henrik and Mette had to learn when, shortly after Henrik’s triumphs, Mette was
diagnosed with leukaemia a few months after the birth of their daughter Anna. There
followed several years of struggle for the little family, with the cancer setting the agenda. Henrik
more or less stopped running and never returned to the form he had between 1984 and
1989.
Mette came through her cancer treatment alive, and the family then moved back to
Mette’s native island of Bornholm, where Henrik has now lived for almost 30 years. Throughout his life Henrik kept to his daily routines and went for a run every day in Nordskoven between Rønne and Hasle. As he himself said, he just kept himself “a bit in shape”. That shape was, however, more than enough for him to become European champion in the M 50 10,000 m on the track at the European Masters/Veterans Championships in
Poland in 2012, even though he rarely competed. When he did, it was mostly local races on Bornholm, where his high level always shone through. Henrik still ran really fast.
Henrik’s paths and mine crossed in wondrous ways over the years. We did not see each other often, but when we met, we simply resumed a 10-20-30-40-year-old conversation as if it were the easiest thing in the world.
And now the emptiness is deafening. Henrik is no more.
All that remains can be summed up in two words: thanks and gratitude.
Thank you for everything you gave, Henrik.
Gratitude for having met a unique and wholehearted human star like you, Henrik.
I think you have just run on a little ahead.
My warmest thoughts go to Mette and Anna.
Honoured be the memory of Henrik Jørgensen.
Bent Povlsen
Photos
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