In a short closing ceremony Aland celebrated the end of a top sporting occasion, with the next hosts the Isle of Wight injecting some fun into the occasion with flag waving dancers brightening up an otherwise rainy evening.
Although Jersey may have lost out on retaining the top spot in the overall medal table to the Faroe Islands, finishing third behind the Isle of Man, there were, indeed, some memorable moments along the way.
Athletics: The crowds gathered daily to watch an impressive level of competition in which Jersey, although not taking their biggest haul of medals, had, in coach Andrew Winnie’s, eyes their best ever Games performance.
Personal bests were being set with stunning consistency as Jersey took 17 medals, four of which were thanks to the hugely talented Gemma Dawkins while Peter Irving, Zane Duquemin, and Kathryn Rothwell all came away with two individual medals – the latter two on their Island Games debut.
Swimming: Although training and preparation had been going well, the swimmers headed to Aland knowing that they were without two of their best, and, with a weakened men’s squad, team manager Neil Faudemer had conceded that a performance to rival that of Rhodes 2007 – where they won a haul of 33 medals – was unlikely.
In fact, what happened took almost everyone by surprise – swimmers included – as the squad scored 31 medals, qualified for almost every final, and achieved some unbelievable PBs. From day one, Jersey marked their territory in the pool, as Ian Black stunned world-class swimmers with record-breaking gold medal swims in the 200m IM and 100m breaststroke.
Impressive, too, were the gold medals won by Katie Speller, the phenomenal long and middle-distance freestyle times of JJ Gallichan, and the sheer guts and spirit shown by an entire team – many of whom were fighting through injury and illness. Ebony Jacklin rose from her bed, where she had spent the day nursing a throat infection, to win bronze in the 50m freestyle and gold in the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay, while Emma Glendening relied on pain-killing injections to see her through the week with a sprained ankle.
Football: The footballers were to have a magnificent tournament, despite an injury or two. From their 1-0 opener against Saaremaa they went on to win every game, failing to drop a single point.
They disposed of their toughest group opponents, Rhodes, 2-0, and thrashed Isle of Wight 4-1 to set up a semi-final with inter-insular rivals Guernsey. They had lost Luke Watson along the way, to an ankle injury, but though the prognosis wasn’t great he’d made a return to the bench for the Guernsey game, where the team won 2-0.
Unfortunately, though, that win came at a cost for Jersey – as the brilliant Andrew Bird, who had made the save of the season to keep Jersey back in the game, broke his wrist in the process. It was thus up to the team to win the tournament for Bird, which they duly did, beating Aland 2-1 in front of five or so thousand spectators at the atmospheric Wiklof athletics stadium.
Golf: It wasn’t, perhaps, the week the golfers had hoped for – the men headed to Aland as favourites for the gold medal, while the ladies’ were all set to defend their title from Rhodes. Gavin O’Neill, Christy McLaughlin and Olivia Jordan-Higgins were front-runners for individual medals, but both squads were humbled after a difficult opening day – which turned into a bit of an up and down week. O’Neill finished fifth for the men, although Jordan-Higgins did pick up a silver, and the men’s team still managed a podium place, winning bronze.
Badminton: A largely a young and inexperienced badminton team were carried through by the veterans of the squad, pulling in a haul of three medals. Bronze was just missed in the team competition, although great determination was shown in the earlier stages as Jersey had progressed from the groups to the play-off, and from the play-off to the semis, by the skin of their teeth.
Perhaps most impressive was the valiant performance shown by Gavin Carter, who was forced to intersperse his time on court with trips to the treatment room, having sustained a back injury in his opening game. Jade Coombs-Goodfellow and Lyndsey Woodward won another bronze in the ladies’ doubles, but surely the highlight of the badminton week for Jersey was the gold medal won by Chris Cotillard and Kim Ashton in the mixed doubles. They were always tipped to do well in the competition, having shown their potential early on, but they were forced to overcome a seriously tough Guernsey side in the final for the chance of an Island Games title.
Gymnastics: The gymnastics team made a success story of their sport returning to the Games schedule after being left out for Rhodes 2007. Matthew Maletroit’s gold medal in the FIG parallel bars event, in which he beat Commonwealth Games gymnast Alex Hedges from the Isle of Man, is one performance that stands out while youngster Matthew Hill pulled off two bronze medal winning displays on the pommel.
Table tennis: Clive Hansford was thrilled with the performance of his table tennis team who vastly improved their medal pulling power to rake in three silvers and two bronze medals, compared to just one bronze two years ago, with some show stopping finals keeping the crowds entertained.
Second place in the team event, losing 4-3 to Gotland, and Craig Gascoyne’s seven game thriller in the men’s singles must rank highly in the entertainment stakes for Jersey performances this week.
Tennis: It was almost the stuff of dreams for tennis player Andrew Evans last week as one minute he seemed down and out, an injury the week before the Games putting paid to his singles quest, followed by a brave decision to challenge with Kirsten McArthur for the mixed doubles title which resulted in a close final and a silver medal.
With some tough competition in the other doubles events, as well as the singles and team contest the tennis players Evans and McArthur’s medal was well deserved after a hard fought week for the Jersey contingent.
Sailing: A late win for Martin Speller topped a tough week for the sailing team who were the first ones to admit they weren’t suited to the light Aland winds. But with conditions picking up on the last day Speller beat the fleet for a final round win in the laser standard rig to help the team to eighth overall as David Carter in a laser radial had the best overall position in 11th.
Windsurfing: Team silver gave the windsurfers cause for celebration as they repeated their achievements of two years ago to finish second although in completely contrasting conditions. Again the light conditions meant a week of hard work and blisters for some although Michael Millar came close to the individual podium as he finished fourth.
Basketball: The basketball team looked at their tough group draw as a blessing in disguise with coach Bob Gouzinis appreciative of two tough games against Bermuda and the Cayman Islands as, he said, despite heavy defeats it was an experience that Jersey would not be able to secure in any other environment.
They did secure a victory in their third match over Aland but just missed out on seventh place overall following a nail-biting finish to their match against the Isle of Man.
Shooting: As expected, Jersey’s shooters were a beacon of medal-winning, with two golds and a silver medal for stalwart Dave Ward. Mary Norman made a fantastic Island Games debut, also winning two golds and a silver, before she teamed up with Jennie Ward for the were the most regular visitors to the medical room. In fact, Jersey’s 25m sport pistol trophy. Stephen Bouchard and Andy Chapman celebrated their Island Games debut with a silver medal, for the team 50m prone smallbore rifle, and Bouchard took another bronze in the individual event.
Volleyball: The week had looked headed for a disappointing finish for Jersey’s ladies’ volleyball players, who had started with hopes of a bronze medal, but finished bottom of the group without a win. Yet the team really had played with heart, losing one game by just nine points overall, and in most cases taking their opponents to the wire.
Still, they deserved something from the week, and that something came on Friday, when they were matched against Guernsey in the play-off for 11th and 12th, and absolutely hammered them 3-0. It was a more optimistic week for the men, who managed to equal their placing from Rhodes and finish sixth, having won some respectable group games against the Cayman Islands, Bermuda and Gibraltar.
What Jersey will always struggle with, however, is the fact that volleyball is a phenomenally popular sport in many other islands across the world, and far more prevalent in many Island Games communities than it is in the Channel Islands.
Judo: It was a tough week, also, for the judo squad who, as it turned out, judo team really didn’t have much luck at all – André Blaby went out with a shoulder injury within seconds of his first contest, Alain Baudains sustained a serious neck injury that evening and was forced to wear a neck brace for the rest of that week, and there were other rumours of ripped fingernails and such like which threatened any medal hopes, and a significantly-weakened team failed to progress from round one of the team event. Still, Keiron Lambert and Andrew Day came close to titles in the repechage events, and despite the dodgy shoulder Blaby still finished second in his group.
Archery: It was a good week, though, for Mike Coward, a relative newcomer to the sport of archery, but who scored a silver medal for his attempts in the single FITA men’s recurve event. Coward, a former rugby and cricket player, finished just one point behind Menorcan rival Borja Gonalons, while Team Jersey finished in sixth.
