0.67 seconds from the bronze medal, 1.87 from the silver, in the 1500 freestyle. Fastest final ever, with Sun Yang setting a world record, and Pál improving his Nordic more than 10 seconds. Kis, you did good, Cochrane, you better train hard until London 2012. Happy times, even though we lost. Hsieh Hsieh Shanghai, Malmö tomorrow :-)

Our liaison officer Cora bought us a newspaper this morning, after her parents telling her that there was a story about Pál in it. The headline says “One athlete, big dream”, and they even found a photo showing his signature hand flick. Now, I don’t know exactly how many people read this paper, but since it is nation-wide, I wouldn’t be surprised if its readers outnumber us the Faroese, even counting sheep and birds :-D

An Olympic qualification for a Faroese still living and training on the hard rock islands, that is a first ever. A new Nordic record also, now counting two in two events :-)

So we decided to go visit the ‘bottle opener’, the Shanghai World Financial Center, with a Sky Arena at 94th floor (423m), a Sky Walk with glass roof at 97th floor (439m) and a Sky Walk with glass floor at 100th floor (474m). It was nice, hot and sunny, and the smog had lifted for us to see the city all around us. 1500 tomorrow.

So now I’m in the dog house for sending a request out to the Faroese media, that they should clear any interview with us the team around Pál, rather than find him on Facebook or where ever, exploiting that he doesn’t like to say no. A request that tabloid news portal Vágaportalurin chose to put online.

(me and a rouge, private journalist setting up our radio studio at the European Junior Championships in Belgrade 2008, where Pál won 3 gold medals)

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