The athletic flair from Dalsbygda had a real boost with long-distance NM gold at Jessheim last weekend, his third in a row.

With a time of 4.10.64, he was only seven-tenths short of his personal best.

The timing could not have been better for the young woman, who has endured a challenging season plagued with illness and injury.

The top race comes just a week before the U23 EC in Espoo, Finland.

But the 19-year-old player did not get his full chance there.

In Saturday’s hot trial, he was just a screamer away from missing the entire final.

He was a little four hundred from pulling away.

In Sunday’s final, the U20 European champions from 2021 finished 12th with a time of 4:16.83.

But it looked bright for a long time for the strong northeast side to run fast.

He stuck in a tight group and in the final laps he was in control of the top spot.

But when Irish duo Sarah Healy and Sophie O’Sullivan went with another 300 meters, Østgård had no chance to follow.

It finally came to an abrupt halt for a 19-year-old player who seemed to have given up on the run.

– I felt good during the race, but when there were 400 meters left, I still didn’t have the speed necessary to keep up until the end, Østgård wrote in a text message to Østrendingen on Sunday evening.

– I probably gave up a little when I realized that the instructions were working and I couldn’t get what I was good at, he added.

O’Sullivan took gold in 4:07.18. It was a new personal record for the 21-year-old.

Healy took silver 18 hundred behind, while Great Britain’s Shannon Flockhart took the bronze medal with a new personal best of 4:08.37, one and a half seconds ahead of Ingeborg Østgård’s personal best.

When the Dalsbygda girls ran during last weekend’s NM would mean 4th place in the EC finals.

– Based on the conditions and how I trained, I am satisfied with last place and I chose to follow the lead from the start, said the Tjalve runner.