Final Day

To start the final day of athletics Ross Hanley jumped a respectable 12.64 in the final Men’s “Triplepoint” jump just missing the cut after three jumps. We are still not sure whether “Triplepoint” (see program) is an equestrian event or a style of jumping.

Next on Track was the Women’s 5000m. Louise made a decisive break in the second half of the race and cruised to another victory, making her double Island Games Champion for the second time.

In the men’s 1500m final, Michael Batiste ran yet another PB of 4.06.07 and Lee Garland(who was hobbling even before he started) ran a respectable time of 4.12.31.

The women’s 4x100m team had a fantastic run, winning a well deserved gold medal in a convincing time of 48.25, which was a great achievement for the young squad with the average age of 18 years old, being an island record by 1.5 seconds. Well done to Kylie Robilliard, Caroline Kyle, Emma Le Conte, Teresa Roberts.

In the equivalent men’s event, the Guernsey team ran an impressive race despite a dodgy final changeover to finish second to the classy Cayman Team by just .01 of a second.

The men’s 10,000m – Steve Dawes was our medal hope. The illness leading up to the week ensured he wasn’t able to run to his potential and finished 4^th in a time of 32:19. Our other representative was Mike Wilesmith who ran a PB of 33:17.37 on his track debut for the distance.

The final event of the games was the 4x400m relays, first up was the Women who ran a 4:04:81 to come 4^th in the final. The team consisted of Caroline Kyle, Sadie Addlesee, Nat Whitty and Emma Le Conte.

Hi, it’s Tom here for the first time this week! Today was a mixed day for the relay teams (I am not really qualified to comment on the distance events – unless you want to hear about my ideas for running most of the races underground with only the final lap in the stadium.)

The girls ran a great sprint relay and took an island record with their victory. To quote Dale “well we better bloody win now”. We didn’t. Things seemed to be going ok until the final change over when myself and Azza (Josh) succumbed to lack of practice with a less than perfect change. Junior Hines of Cayman Islands got the baton at top speed whilst I only received it at half speed, giving him a couple of metres which I couldn’t quite make up. He held me off by 0.01sec meaning a couple of teachers probably had to apologise to their pupils for the appalling language of the man who only came 2^nd in the relay. Never mind, we still got an Island record of 41.80 and Glenn didn’t go mental at me for a poor change over like in Aland (this time it definitely wasn’t my fault?!).

The 4x400 was a formality, we thought. And it was. Leo ran steadily before Dale unleashed a little bit with the best performance of his Island Games with a fast relay leg. Eben (or Eeben, as the stadium announcer insisted on calling him[not Ingy]) ran brilliantly on our third leg to pass to me with a sizable lead, which allowed me to finish comfy without any drama. Nice.

Throughout the evening, people kept asking us about the football and how it went. We lost 4-2 after extra time, but I don’t think any of us are that fussed to be honest. Maybe they should ask us about our own sport where we did really well?!

The efforts of this final day took us to the top of the Medal Table for Athletics(total=9).

Overall it has been an enjoyable time, even if I was denied by one hundredth of a second on 2 occasions! GUTTED! I’ve also got to thank my lovely girlfriend Suzi for providing lifts to and from the track on a regular basis, without any unnecessarily scary speed involved. Thanks baby.

See you all soon, Tom.