News / Triathlon bronze & football victory on day one
TEAM SHETLAND’S female triathletes ensured the islands made it onto the medal table on the opening day of this year’s NatWest Island Games in Gotland – while the footballers also got off to a flyer thanks to a closely-fought 5-4 victory over Saaremaa.
The triathlon team of Wendy Hatrick, Lynsey Henderson and Shelley Humphray claimed a bronze medal after a “fantastic and hard-won race”.
In choppy seas off the Gotland coast, Lynsey emerged from the water in second place and finished eighth overall after the bike and running legs. Her performance and those of Shelley and Wendy were enough to earn third place behind the two Channel Islands, gold medallists Jersey and silver medallists Guernsey.
The men’s team finished tenth, with Davie Williamson the highest-placed Shetlander in the individual event in 25th out of a 63-strong field.
Meanwhile, the footballers’ victory on day one came in a high-scoring clash against Estonian side Saaremaa. James Aitken gave the blues the ideal start with a fourth minute goal, before Mario Pruul levelled the score.
Centre back Joel Bradley restored Shetland’s lead just before the half-hour mark, only for Sander Laht to make it 2-2 shortly before half time. Saaremaa then took the lead through Mario Stern but, within four minutes, Sam Maver levelled things up.
Goals from substitute Richard Sinclair and, a minute later, captain Leighton Flaws gave Shetland a commanding 5-3 lead, but Sander Viira soon pulled one back to ensure a nail-biting climax.
With Aland and Guernsey drawing 1-1 in the group’s other match, it leaves Shetland top of Group C heading into Monday’s match against the Channel Islanders.
On the athletics track, in the men’s 800 metres Seumas Mackay ran a time of 1.54.27, taking more than a second off his own Shetland record at that distance, qualifying for a place in Tuesday evening’s final.
Faye Cox and Mhia Mouat are also through to the semi finals of the 100 metres, while Molly Morgan achieved the same feat – along with a personal best time – in the 400 metres.
Elsewhere in the athletics, Tamar Moncrieff finished ninth in the long jump final after achieving a distance of 4.63 metres. Lucy Holden’s jump of 4.55 metres saw her finish 13th.
Sean Walterson (1.7 metres) and Stuart Bain (1.66 metres) came ninth and tenth respectively in the final of the men’s long jump.
Hammer thrower Connor McDonald managed a distance of 30.12 metres to finish eighth in the final of that event.
In Group B of the table tennis event at Södervärnshallen in Visby, Shetland were defeated 7-0 by the host island and also lost 7-0 to Faroe on Sunday morning – before bouncing back with a 5-2 victory over Menorca in the afternoon.
Dawid Niesciur won both his single’s matches in straight sets, and the team face second-placed Aland and bottom side Alderney in Monday’s matches.
In the automatic ball trap team event, isles shooting pair Peter Davies and Darren Leslie finished joint eighth in a 13-strong field scoring 150 points.
In Group A of the badminton team event at the Rackethallen (also in Visby), Shetland were seen off 5-0 by Faroe and Gotland.
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