News / Team Shetland returns home
SHETLAND’s successful Island Games team returned home on Sunday morning with seven gold, four silver and four bronze medals in their luggage.
Outstanding athlete of the games was Lerwick swimmer Andrea Strachan with four gold medals, the most successful Shetland competitor of any Natwest Island Games.
Her team mate Amy Harper, won five medals in the pool, one gold, two silver and two bronze.
The other two gold medals were won by Emma Leask in the 800 metres, and cyclist Christine Maclean in the women’s individual time trial.
Other medal winners were Inga Woods in the javelin (bronze), Lynda Flaws in table tennis (silver), swimmer Felix Gifford (bronze) and the Shetland archery team (silver).
Following a week of high drama and some fantastic achievements, manager of Team Shetland Bob Kerr paid tribute to the whole squad.
“It has been a fantastic week of medals successes and some amazing performances from the whole team. There were plenty of personal bests but also some frustrating fourth places for a number of competitors.
“That reflects the very high standard of the competition this year. There have been a number of sports where the level of competition seemed much higher than just a few years ago.
“The runaway success of the games has been Andrea Strachan with gold medals in the swimming pool, and Felix Gifford who has taken the first ever men’s medal in the swimming pool.
“The girls have done very well all round – the golden girls of the Shetland team are Andrea Strachan, Amy Harper, Emma Leask and Christine Maclean,” he said.
He added that the focus would now shift to the next island games, to be held in Bermuda in 2013.
“We need to do research on the possible cost of travel and accommodation, as both are likely to be expensive; but also consider those costs alongside the fact that the Bermuda team always travels to Europe, and it is only fair that we return the favour and travel to Bermuda for their games.
“Preparation will start in a few weeks time once people had the time to reflect on the last games. We will regroup in August and start working on the plans for Bermuda,” he said.
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