Games end with triumph on the running track

TEAM Shetland is celebrating after completing one of its most successful Island Games with 23 medals that put it in tenth place overall.

Hammer thrower Elaine Park who won silver on Wednesday, her first medal in eight games, held the Shetland flag aloft at the closing ceremony in the baking heat of Jersey’s Howard Davis Park.

Friday proved to be a day of success and surprise on the running track, while on the football pitch a spectacular free kick from Menorca was enough to edge a spirited Shetland out of a bronze medal by one goal to nil.

Manager Niall Bristow and his players can still be more than satisfied with their week’s work, with fourth place the best the footballers have done in a games outside of Shetland.

The father-daughter duo of Gordon Keith and Shona Mackay also lost the mixed badminton doubles final to Gotland, but will return to the isles content with a silver.

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However joy was the order of the day for the startling 100 metre women’s relay team who overtook the opposition to take gold.

And Katie Bristow was elated at taking silver in the 5,000 metres after being forced to bow out of the 10,000 metres on Wednesday, which she had been hoping to win after leading at the halfway stage.

Bristow told BBC Radio Shetland’s Jane Moncrieff that she had not expected to win a medal in the 5,000 metres, having set her heart on gold in the 10,000m.

“I came to the Games hoping for a medal mostly in the 10K so with that disappointment to come out with a medal makes me over the moon and very emotional,” she said.

Jersey’s Sarah Mercer took gold in the race, which she competes in at Commonwealth Games level, but Bristow was almost 100m ahead of her nearest rival after sprinting to the finishing line.

Meanwhile the women’s relay team also declared themselves “over the moon” with their result.

Tamar Moncrieff, Faye Cox, Christie Grant and Sophie Moar were confident throughout and Moar overtook Jersey in the final stretch to take gold.