Sport / Island Games round-up: Mad Monday brings trio of medals
SHETLAND soared up the medal table after a famous treble of medals were seized by isles athletes on a scintillating Monday of Island Games action.
First archer Billy Finnie won his fifth individual games medal by sealing bronze in the single men’s recurve, shooting an overall score of 1,061 to ensure he finished third in the table in Kirkwall.
Then two other previous medal winners – athletes Bobby Laurenson and Katie Dinwoodie – continued their incredible recent runs at the games to both seal silver within minutes of each other at the Pickaquoy athletics track.
Laurenson smashed his personal best (PB) to cross the line in the men’s 400m race in 48.91s, having already set a new PB in the semi-final hours earlier.
Speaking to Shetland News after the race, Laurenson said his new best time was the most pleasing thing about his performance – calling the silver medal “a very nice plus”.
Then all eyes turned to the women’s 100m race, with Dinwoodie and team-mate Sophie Grant among a field of eight athletes making the final.
Dinwoodie came into the race having won bronze in both Gibraltar in 2019 and Guernsey two years ago.
This time she went one better, finishing second in a time of 12.13s to clinch her first Island Games silver medal.
Grant finished the race in sixth in a time of 12.56s.
Teenager Kian Redman also performed brilliantly to make the men’s 100m final, and showed signs of things to come by finishing fifth in the pack in 11.05s.
There was also a new PB for distance runner Neil Arthur in the men’s 10,000m race, which he completed in a time of 34 minutes and 13 seconds to finish ninth.
Strongman Dhanni Moar was also competing at the track on Monday, taking on the men’s shot put competition where he recorded a score of 11.47m.
That capped off a packed day of games activity, with everything from cycling to golf going ahead across Orkney on Monday.
Check out more of Monday’s photos at the bottom of this page.
SHETLAND finished eighth in the final badminton team event standings after two defeats on Monday.
The blues had recorded two wins from their first two group games on Sunday before narrowly falling to Menorca in their final group game.
That set up a tie with Guernsey, and despite the mixed doubles pair of Thomas Calder and Shona Mackay winning the first game Shetland would go on to lose 4-1.
They went into a 7th/8th play-off with the Isle of Wight for final placings, which they lost 3-0.
Next up in the badminton competition are the men’s and women’s singles and doubles, which start from 9am on Tuesday.
LOUISE Parr followed up her silver medal in the women’s team triathlon on Sunday by finishing just over half a minute outside the medal places in the cycling on Monday.
Parr finished sixth in the women’s individual time trial in the West Mainland in a time of 58:03, with fellow triathlete Lynsey Henderson 10th.
Cyclist Robin Atkinson was 26th in a packed field in the men’s time trial, with Andrew Grant just behind him in 27th and Ross Osborn 42nd.
SWIMMER Emmie Hutchison narrowly missed out on a bronze medal after finishing fourth in the women’s 100m butterfly on Monday night.
Hutchison finished in a time of 1:04.79 after coming through her heat in the morning to make the final.
Joe Carter also made the final of the men’s 200m butterfly, finishing fifth in 2:11.02, and Jasmin Smith finished sixth in the women’s 50m breaststroke in a race unsurprisingly dominated by Commonwealth Games swimmer Kara Hanlon.
Youngster Julian Okroj impressed in his 1,500m freestyle heat on Monday morning, finishing in a time of 16:55 – which secured him sixth spot overall in the final positions.
More than 10 of team Shetland’s swimmers will be back in the pool on Tuesday morning as they try to get through to the evening’s finals.
GYMNASTS were also competing on Monday.
Kali Mackenzie-Thomson finished 21st on vault out of 59 gymnasts (0.625 behind first place), Lori Nicolson placed 42nd (1.00 behind first place) and Isla Willmore 45th
On the floor, Mackenzie-Thomson was 23rd out of 59, which was 1.35 behind first place.
On bars, Julia Strachanowska was 40th and Merin Smith 41st. On beam, Merin Smith finished 37th and Kali 39th.
Julie Grant from the local gymnastics club said the “girls are holding their own amongst top athletes who train daily in top class facilities”.
JERSEY emerged with all three points against Shetland’s women’s football team after capitalising on some unfortunate errors.
The blues had defended resolutely in the first half of their group encounter without threatening the opposition’s goal too often in Kirkwall.
But a goal direct from a corner shortly after half-time put Jersey ahead, which they added to towards the end of the game to secure a 2-0 win.
Shetland face Bermuda in their final group game on Tuesday afternoon, with the 2023 gold medallists having won their first two group matches already.
GOLFER Stacy Warren sits ninth and just five shots off the lead after the opening round at Orkney Golf Club in Kirkwall on Monday.
Warren shot a round of 81 to keep her within touching distance of the leaders, with team-mates Heather Hogg and Alison Laurenson on 89 and Angelina Jamieson on 93.
Robert Geddes is joint 10th after a first round of 71 in Stromness, keeping him only six shots behind the gold medal position.
Team-mated Mike Stein shot 73, with Joshua Morrison on 76 and Kieren Fraser on 79 after the opening round of four.
ANDY Walterson remains second in the men’s singles round robin table of the lawn bowls competition after four wins from his six games.
Jersey’s Mike Rive leads the way with five wins from five, with other players in the table still to complete their six games before medal places are decided.
Pairs team Alex Elphinstone and Gibbie Pottinger lead the way in their round robin table after four wins and just one defeat from their five games.
They take on the pair from Orkney in their final group game on Tuesday morning.
Women’s pair Anne Barron and Caroline Smith have two wins from their four matches – with an inter-county clash with Orkney to come on Tuesday too.
Anne Robertson is also in action in the women’s singles, with three games still to play.
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