It was, unquestionably, the performance of the night – Gallichan finished in 3.52.56, just 0.3 seconds behind world No 15-ranked Pal Joensen, the Faroes swim star who has dominated the podium this week.
Gallichan also smashed the Island record by four seconds – a record set by Jersey and Olympic swimmer Simon Militis – and became just the second man in Jersey to swim under four minutes for 400m.
And when he realized just how fast he had swam, Gallichan was just as speechless as the spectators.
He said afterwards: ‘My PB was 4.02 before, so that was just unbelievable. I knew it was quick – I felt like I was sub 4 min, but I certainly didn’t think I was going to go sub 3.55 min.
In Rhodes I was going 4.05 min/4.06 min, and since then I’ve been swimming 4.02, so I wanted to go sub 4 min but I didn’t know I was capable of swimming that fast! I knew I had a big swim in me – although I’ve had a bit of an up and down week, on Tuesday four of us broke the Island Games record in the 200m free and I knew I could swim fast.
The competition here has definitely helped – the Faroe Islands are so strong, as are Guernsey’s men, who have given us a bit of a shock as well, but the whole Jersey team has done so well. We’ve had a really great week.’
Elsewhere in the pool, Katie Speller won the only gold of the night with another spectacular individual medley swim – this time in the 100m. Speller was nearly three seconds ahead of the Faroes’ Poula Ossursdottir Mohr, deservedly earning her fourth gold and her eighth medal of the Games.
Rebecca Le Maistre scored a silver in the 200m butterfly, in a PB time of 2.22.58, and Ian Black won another silver in the 200m breaststroke, finishing just over a second behind the Faroes’ Joensen in an Island record-setting time of 2.16.06 min.
There were two final medals for the swimmers, in the relays – the girls’ 4x100m medley relay team of Charlotte Manning, Iona Richardson, Kerrie Smith and Katie Speller won silver, in 4.24.37 min, and the boys won bronze in the 4x100m freestyle relay, with Tom Gallichan, Ben Le Clercq, Michael Le Couillard and Antoin Le Fevre finishing in 3.31.20.
That takes the Jersey swim team’s total medal haul in Aland to 33, which is just two fewer than they won in Rhodes with a full-strength squad.
