What happened today

What happened in the morning.

Ingy gets creative and calls the Menorcan strip as teal.

Everyone qualified in the sprints (see every other day for examples ;-) ). We weren’t so fortunate in the women’s 800 but Sarah ran a superb PB to qualify. Natalie’s first experience of a tactical race will stand her in good stead as her middle distance career progresses.

What happened in the evening.

Ingy finally decides that the Menorcan strip is blue. Not teal, not cyan, but blue. Along with Shetland, The Western Isles, Alderney, Aland, the list goes on…

Cayman opened the long jump in exuberant style with a cry of ‘Hallelujah’, lots of clapping and 7m50 straight up. None of these antics phased Dale who came away with silver. He then moved straight on to the javelin from which he was unable to escape until both the evening’s distance races had finished.

Not wanting to disappoint Tom ‘is that the queue for breakfast?’ Druce, the women’s 10 proceeded at the stately pace of 93second laps for the majority of the race. We hope he was still watching by the last 300 when Louise gave the Faroes a taste of their own medicine. We suspect he wasn’t though ;-)

Obviously sibling rivalry then kicked in and Garland Senior matched his baby brother by taking silver in the ‘chase. Ben Wilen scuppered his chances of a PB by falling at the last hurdle. So close!

Tomorrow the sprint events dominate, with semis in the morning and finals in the evening but distance runners are kept sweet with a bit of middle distance excitement.

And as we close Bernie suggests Louise switches down to 200m. Ingy changes his mind. Electric blue.

Two days to go and I think that it’s time for a Presidential input. Frankly it’s all getting a bit boring. Lots of running round the track, listening to Ingy being a bit of a stato on the microphone and worrying about how I am going to get 29 athletes (and their ego’s) into a 7 seater car.

Of course we need to acknowledge the achievements of the likes of Lee, Glenn, Kylie and Louise for their gold medal performances – too often we take for granted how good they are but there is something very special about seeing our youngsters really rising to the challenge and thoroughly enjoying themselves. Josh has grown in stature with every event. Getting through the heats was his pre-game aim and he will now be disappointed if he doesn’t get on the podium for the 100m. Teresa looked the business in the 100m and yet she’s only 16 and Mike Batiste was an inspiration.

Of course two things have contributed to their success:

1. 1 The phenomenal breakfasts that I have cooked for the team every morning. Frankly they are unbelievable – sponsored by Forest Stores. Football have brought famous celebrity chef Tony Leck with them but word on the street is that my lightly cooked cheese and tomato omelette baked with a frisson of basil would win any cook-off. Bring it on. [I’ve tasted this and, to be honest, it’s a bit overrated – could do with a bit of black pepper – Ingy. Geoff’s assessment is a bit more extreme: “It was s**t, it tasted like at fried egg…and burnt at that”. But as Ingy always says, don’t let the facts get in the way of a good story.]

2. 2 - The gazebo. This was purchased at a knock-off garden shop round the corner from the track. It does look rather special but a bit flimsy – whether it will survive a Force 8 on L’Ancresse remains to be seen. The best thing when I bought it was that they only had them stocked in green and the Jersey cycle team had to buy one because of the threat of rain. It’s the little victories that count.