One gold, two silver and two bronze

FOLLOWING a tough night in the swimming pool and on the race track in Bermuda, Shetland gained more medals on day four of the NatWest Island Games.

Swimmer Felix Gifford won the 400m individual medley by a margin of 5.5 seconds and finished at 4:25.40, a mere two seconds short of breaking the games record

Teammate Donnie Price finished 6th in the same event with a time of 4:39.79.

In addition to his gold, Gifford also won a bronze in the men’s 200m freestyle later in the evening.

These two medals add to his impressive haul of a gold and silver medal in the early stages of the competition, meaning Gifford has won four out of Shetland’s eleven medals so far.

Andrea Strachan picked up her second medal – a silver – in Bermuda’s pool in the 200m individual medley, holding the position she gained in the preliminary heats and improving her time by nearly four seconds to 2:18.67.

Elsewhere in the pool, men’s captain Jake Swanson was edged out of the podium in the 50m breaststroke by just over half a second, finishing a closely contested race in joint 6th with a time of 30.52.

Women’s captain Amy Harper also missed out on a podium position in the 50m butterfly, just 0.3 seconds behind the bronze medal winner.

Anne Hutchinson and Kate Jones came 8th and 9th respectively in the 800m freestyle event, both gaining personal bests by going under ten minutes, and Calum MacColl finished 8th in the 100m fly against stiff competition.

The men’s 4 x 50m freestyle team – comprising of Gifford, MacColl, Callum MacGregor and Swanson – came fourth, despite being tipped to win after coming first in the heats, locking horns with the two top teams in the medal table (Jersey and the Cayman Islands) and the ever strong Guernsey team clinching gold.

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The women’s team shared a similar fate, as Harper, Emma Hutchinson, Megan Petursdottir and Strachan were inched out of the medals by the smallest of margins – 0.03 seconds.

Nevertheless it was a strong night in the pool for Shetland, with the young swimmers showing prowess at an intense level of competition and many achieving personal bests.

On the running track, Emma Leask followed a successful day in the heats by winning the silver medal for the 400m with a time of 58.59.

Leask, who was entered in both the 800m and 400m events, came home in under a minute but was just shy of her personal best, though little did it matter with silver dangling from her neck.

Finally, Kerry Pottinger and Joan Smith won bronze in the squash women’s doubles beating Bermuda’s Denise Kyme and Liz Martin 15–10 and 15–6.

At the end of the day, Shetland added five medals to the tally – one gold, two silver, two bronze – leaving them 10th in the table with three days of competition yet to face.

Iwan MacBride