A gold medal from Dave Ward in pistol shooting had brought Jersey’s tally of golds to 14 at the Games in Aland and had put them at the top of the table.
But, a crop of gold medals for the Isle of Man, now second, and the Faroe Islands meant Jersey dropped to third place.
The Jersey team also claimed two more gold medals late this morning in gymnastics and shooting.
Matthew Maletroit placed first with a score of 13.0 in the men’s FIG Individual parallel bars while Dave Ward’s second gold of the week came in the ISSF 25m Centre Fire shoot were he won on a countback against Menorca’s Llorenc Marqués Llorens. Maletroit also bagged two silver medals as the competition continued.
Another flurry of medals in the swimming and on the athletics track last night as well success at the archery and shooting also helped Jersey into second place on the medals table by this morning.
Gemma Dawkins smashed her PB to take a gold medal in the 400m race finishing in 55.72 while team-mate Sophie Twinam was sixth in 59.05.There was gold for Kathryn Rothwell too as she threw 11.15m to win the shot putt with Jennifer Browne throwing 8.82m in seventh. Making it a hat-trick of gold medals for Jersey last night, Zane Duquemin won the discus with an Island Games record of 50.21m.
Peter Irving’s stretch for the line proved to be a silver medal winning move in the 110m hurdles as he finished second in a time of 15.51 while Felicity Johnson-Deeley (16) won a bronze medal in the 1,500m in 4.39.17. Sophie Twinam just missed out on a spot in the 100m women’s hurdles final after running 17.20 for third place in her heat.
There were four gold medals won after last night’s swimming finals – Ian Black continued his table-topping Island Games campaign with gold in the 50m breaststroke and the 400m IM, while Ebony Jacklin scored her first ever Island Games medal, a gold, in the 50m butterfly, and Katy Speller added one to her collection with a win in the 200m IM.
The men’s and ladies’ relay teams picked up two more silver medals, in the 4x50m freestyle and 4x50m medley relays respectively, and JJ Gallichan swam a superb 200m freestyle to smash the Island Games record – to find that his record-breaking time was only good enough for fourth place.
In the golf, Jersey were struck by problems on the back nine holes of Aland’s Kings Course – the men stormed out on the front, posting scores of 33 and 34 which put them well ahead of the pack, but some slip ups caused Christy McLaughlin to have a frustrating game, finishing up in 75, while Gavin O’Neill lies one off the lead on 72, Sam Crenan sits on 74, and Andy Clarke scored 78.
The women have had even tougher luck, with logistical problems meaning their round took a full six hours to play, but while most were way off the mark with their final scores, Olivia Jordan-Higgins had a phenomenal start, recording a 33 on the front nine – better than most of the men – which gives the ladies some hope for a better day today.
Jersey are flying high in the football having topped their group with a full nine points, and having conceded only one goal, after a 4-1 drubbing of the Isle of Wight. That means Jersey play in the semis on Thursday – and who better to test their talent than old Muratti rivals Guernsey?
Jersey came away with a silver medal in the team table tennis losing 4-3 to Gotland in the final. Trevor Lefebvre lost 3-0 to both Hakan Ahlgren and Johan Eriksson, Craig Gascoyne beat Johan Eriksson and Ahlgren 3-1. Nicola Duke lost 3-2 to Evelina Carlsson but with Kay Lefebvre beat Carlsson and Elin Schwartz 3-1, and Trevor Lefebvre and Duke lost their mixed doubles to Eriksson and Carlsson 3-1.
It was another big loss for Jersey’s basketballers this time 110-29 to Cayman Islands but they can now look forward to a more competitive game against the winner of Aland v the Isle of Man tomorrow.
Shooters Dave Ward and Mike Quénault came millimetres away from a gold medal but had to settle for a bronze in the 10m air pistol team event as they finished on 1106, just one point behind the first two pairs.
Mary Norman and Jenny Ward were looking for their second medal of the Games but finished in third, without a medal, in the 10m air pistol team event as only gold and silver were on offer.
Jersey also missed out on a medal in the team three-positional shoot as Richard Bouchard and Andrew Chapman finished on 1006 for fourth place’ behind Saaremaa in third on 1046.
Jersey’s Dave Ward and Derek Bernard finished fifth in the 25m rapid fire team event with 901, some 48 points off the bronze medal position.
Jersey won a silver medal thanks to Michael Coward’s performance in the recurve archery event after shooting 295 points at 50m and 334 at 30m to finish on a total of 1176 – just a single point off the gold medal. Paul Bredonchel finished 15th on 1054, Martin Pomroy 23rd on 989, and Bjarne Jacobsen 33rd on 752.
Kirsten McArthur is into the quarter-finals of the ladies’ singles having beaten Kreete Teder from Saaremaa 6-1, 6-2 and then Aland’s Pia Mattson 6-1, 6-2 and Rebecca Edward joins her having beaten Carrol Reid from the Cayman Islands 6-1, 6-1 and Saaremaa’s Kristen Mets 7-5, 6-2.
The ladies’ volleyball team are still searching for their first win at the Island Games after they went down 3-0 to Menorca (25-22, 26-24, 25-21). The men?s side did get their first win, however, beating Bermuda 3-0 (25-17, 25-12, 25-18) in their penultimate group match with their final group game against Gibraltar this morning.
Brothers Martin and Jeff Speller just can’t seem to keep away from each other in the sailing as they lie 12th and 13th respectively in the laser standard event. Finishing eighth and 20th yesterday, the latter being discarded as his lowest finish, Martin is just one step ahead of his brother Jeff, who yesterday took 13th and tenth.
David Carter was 16th and 15th yesterday for 11th overall sailing the laser radial rig and David Putt continued to climb the rankings to 17th after finishing 13th and 11th. However, the team drop one place overall to seventh.
Jersey blasted its way up to a silver medal position in the windsurfing team event yesterday. Michael Millar fought his way up to fourth place overall after twice finishing third yesterday and now lies equal on points with Bermuda’s Alex Jones and two points off Menorca’s Loren Mesquida in third.
Justin Horton is ninth overall following a fifth and a tenth place finish while Chris Le Masurier keeps climbing the leaderboard to tenth overall following a tenth and a sixth while Steve Melia is 16th overall with a 15th and 16th place finish.
