Despite a valiant campaign, none of the Jersey squad had managed to crack the semi-final stage until yesterday, when the mixed doubles duo conquered Isle of Man pair Matthew Wilkinson and Kimberley Clague in straight sets, 21-18, 21-15.
Earlier they beat Orkney duo Ewan Gray and Jane Hill 21-7, 21-6 in the last 32 of the competition, before thumping Faroe Islands pairing Bjartur Lamhauge and Guori Poulsen 21-8, 21-15 in the quarter-finals.
Today they face Guernsey’s Kevin Le Moigne and Gayle Lloyd in the gold medal play-off – a couple they have already beaten once this week, in the team competition.
Cotillard said: ‘We’re definitely pleased to go through – I didn’t think we had the easiest draw, so it’s a good result to get through to the final. I think we were definitely hoping for a medal, which would be a nice way to finish the week.
‘Orkney actually weren’t very good, but we’d beaten the Faroes in the team competition earlier in the week so we thought we’d have a chance of winning that.
‘We met the Isle of Man in the quarter-finals and we hadn’t played them before but we had heard they were really good – that one turned out to be a tight match and we beat them 27-25 in the third set.
‘We’d been losing 20-18 in the first set but came back to win. We are playing Guernsey now in the final, who will be playing the same pairs as we played in the team event. We beat them in two straight sets so we know we can win.’
