Island Games day one: six medals, two football wins and athletics qualifying

Team Isle of Man has got off to a successful start in Guernsey

The first day of the 2023 Island Games in Guernsey saw Team Isle of Man win six medals: two gold, one silver and two bronze.

The first gold came in the same event as the silver: men’s high jump. Regan Corrin was the only athlete to clear a height of 1.95m to win the event, whilst his teammate, James Margrave, cleared 1.90m to come second.

In shooting, it was in the Olympic trap team event where Mark Riley and Robert Watterson scored a total of 164 to win the gold medal.

The Island’s first medal of the games came in the men’s triathlon, with Will Draper finishing third to secure bronze. The combined scores of all eight Manx athletes who took part in that event secured the Isle of Man the bronze team medal too.

The third bronze was secured late in the evening in the women’s tennis.  After success in the quarterfinals with wins for Karen Faragher and Anna Kirk in the singles and Elena Snidal and Aailish Kelly in the doubles, the Isle of Man were knocked out by Jersey in the semi-finals. The bronze is tied with Guernsey who were also knocked out, as there's no third place play-off.

The men’s tennis team began with similar success after singles wins from Sean Drewry and Orry Farnworth and a doubles victory from Martyn Bailey and Elliot Jones over the Isle of Wight. They were knocked out in the quarter finals by Bermuda.

On the badminton court, the Isle of Man defeated Bermuda, the Falkland Islands, Froya and the Isle of Wight in the group stage of the team competition.

In football, the Isle of Man men’s team took a 3-0 victory over the Falkland Islands whilst the women’s team won with a score of 3-1 over Menorca.

At the Osmond Priaulx Memorial Playing Fields, where track and field events are taking place, Nathan Teece and Daniel Clague both progressed to the semi-finals of the men’s 100m. Meanwhile, Meghan Pilley qualified for the final of the women’s 100m.

Carla Teece finished 9th in the women’s 100m heats, Lucy Ormsby set a new PB to finish 9th in the women’s 400m heats and Macy Hillier placed 14th in the same event. In the men’s 400m heats, Ben Sinclair finished 10th and Alexander Bell recorded a new PB to come 12th.

In the women’s triple jump final, Imogen Cook and Catherine Perry finished in 7th and 8th place respectively.

It was a tough day for Team Isle of Man’s table tennis contingent, being defeated by Guernsey, Greenland and the Cayman Islands in the group stage.

The Isle of Man sailing team have also been in first-round action today. In the ILCA 7 after round one, Jason Hyett is 12th and Ross Arnold 13th. In the ILCA 6, Matthew Perry is 16th and Elsie Hyett 22nd.

Among the sports scheduled for Monday are the cycling time trials, with manx athletes competing in the men’s event, more racquet sports and athletics and the opening day of swimming events.