It was a brilliant night from start to finish, with established stars like Ian Black returning in triumph with two outstanding golds and the landmark breaking of Olympian Darren Mews’ Games 100m record, and the emergence of young stars like Cameron Donaldson, who clinched not only the first swimming gold but also Team Jersey’s first title of the Bermuda Games in the 1,500m freestyle early in the evening.
It was quality all the way, with Emily Bashforth also setting a new Games mark when she bettered the time of Guernsey girl Kristina Neves in the 200m freestyle.
Jersey coach Nathan Jégou was certainly a pleased man at the end of the night, though he stressed that this was only the first night of the first day and that a lot of hard work was still ahead.
But he has every reason to feel proud of the way his team rose to the challenge – it could hardly have gone much better – though he clearly thinks some of the criticism of the swimmers at the last Games was unjustified.
He said: ‘The squad have again worked hard for two years and tonight was all about medals. Ian came back well, and the girls did particularly well, with Beckie Scaife still only 14, Gemma Atherley 15 and Emily Bashforth only 17. They’ve done the hard work and they are the ones who have achieved. And Cameron Donaldson’s time was pretty special, too – two years ago he was only doing 17 minutes. I think we’ve shown we are setting the standard. Pople have to chase hard, but the most important days are three and four – there’s still work to be done.’
