Sport / Island Games round-up: Grant’s gold and women footballers make more history
JUST when it looked like it wasn’t going to happen, in cycled Grant Ferguson to deliver Shetland’s first gold of the 2025 Island Games on Thursday.
Team Shetland had collectively produced a performance to be proud of – and continue to do so – with 13 medals accrued as of Thursday morning.
But that coveted gold medal had eluded the blues, until Ferguson stormed the field in the cross-country mountain biking course at Binscarth Farm – finishing almost two minutes ahead of his nearest competitor.
The former Olympian shrugged off the scorching Orkney sun and any tiredness from Tuesday’s mountain bike criterium – which he earned a silver medal in – to cross the line in 93 minutes and 24 seconds after 10 laps of the course.
There was a party atmosphere among the Shetland supporters long before the win was confirmed, with fellow rider Cameron Read even having the audacity to pull off a wheely as he himself completed the punishing course.
With that medal in the bag attentions then quickly turned to the football pitch in Rendall, where Shetland’s women’s footballers made history by beating Hitra for their first ever Island Games victory.
The 2-1 win secured seventh place for the blues at their first games back for 20 years, and they will more than feel that they have proved they have earned their seat at the table when the games roll around again in two years time.
Then it was back to Kirkwall Bowling Green, where the blues were rolling to medal success once again.
Cheered on by a capacity crowd – who were warming more and more to the action as the bar opened – Shetland’s men’s triples team of Tam Terris, Ian Leiper and Eric Muir beat the Western Isles to confirm a third place finish and a bronze medal to boot.
Thursday’s action took Shetland to 15 medals for the games ahead of the final day of sport – their best medal return at an Island Games for 10 years.
THE WOMEN’S 4 x 100m relay team set a new Shetland record in a blistering heat on Thursday night.
Sprinters Katie Dinwoodie, Sophie Grant, Lauren Grains and Eva Thompson were second fastest in qualifying with a time of 48.21s.
That surpassed the previous record of 48.82s, which was set by the relay team in Gibraltar six years ago.
They finished just 0.06s behind the relay team from Orkney in an extremely close finish to Thursday evening’s heat, and will now contest the final at 2pm on Friday.
The men’s 100m relay team of John Leslie, Kian Redman, Jack Baronet and Murray Todd came excruciatingly close to a final place, missing out by 0.03s after an extremely tight heat.
SHETLAND’S swimmers have continued to smash their personal bests amid one of the toughest and fastest competitions in Island Games history.
Jersey’s Filip Nowacki has won 11 medals in the pool alone, eight of them gold, with Orkney’s Eve Wood claiming four medals and the Western Isles’ Kara Hanlon winning four golds.
Despite the dominance of their competitors, Shetland’s swimming team have spent all week breaking their own previous records and giving themselves new heights to reach.
On Thursday Julian Okroj qualified for the men’s 400m freestyle final after a fifth place finish in the heats, and he went on to better his own PB in the final with a time of 4:13.10.
It was a similar story for the 14-year-old in the 100m backstroke where he set a new PB of 1:00.46, with Finlay Geddes also near to his best time.
Emmie Hutchison and Caoilinn Robinson were close to the finals of the 100m freestyle, with Robinson’s time of 1:00.94 a new PB.
There were also PBs for Joe Carter and Magnus Bullough in the 50m freestyle event, with Katie Bain and Rhona Anderson close to their best times in the same race.
And Magnus Bullough and Cailean Johnson also set new PBs in the 200m breaststroke.
Robinson was the fastest to the finish in the morning’s 800m freestyle in a time of 9:56.26, earning her a sixth place finish overall, while Kayla Johnson had a season best time of 10:12.67 in the same race.
With the swimming competition coming to an end on Thursday night, the team will head back to Shetland delighted with a raft of new Shetland records and PBs.
ARCHERS Billy Finnie, Benjamin Hamer and Katie MacFarlane just missed out on a medal on the final day of archery at the games.
The trio had made the semi-finals of the recurve head-to-head event before succumbing to the dominant team from Faroe Islands in the last four.
And they were beaten by Jersey in the medal match, but the archery team will be more than happy with the two medals they have gathered in Kirkwall this week.
THOMAS Calder and Shona Mackay also narrowly lost out on medals after an extremely close defeat to a team from Greenland in badminton’s mixed doubles.
The pair had come through three rounds against pairs from Bermuda and the Western Isles to make the last eight, but were pipped 21-15, 21-19 in their bid to make the last four.
With no third/fourth play-off in the competition, the two losing pairs in the semi-finals are automatically awarded bronze medals – so Calder and Mackay would have won medals either way if they had progressed.
SHETLAND’S gymnasts put on a show to be proud of on their final day of competition at the Stromness Academy on Thursday morning.
The young team performed floor routines before competing on the vault, asymmetric bars and beam.
Kali Mackenzie-Thomson impressed the judges with her vault performance, earning a total score of 10.925 – which saw her finish 17th out of a 47-strong field.
Oliwia Strachanowska received an overall score of 28.25, having not competed on the bars, with Merin Smith getting 21.10 and Mackenzie-Thomson receiving 19.95 – also not taking part on bars and beam.
Julia Strachanowska, Isla Willmore and Lori Nicolson also gave it their all on the daunting big stage in Stromness, and will be delighted to have competed well against such high-calibre gymnasts.
Photos in the hall of the training facilities each island use was also a stark reminder of how restrictive the lack of a purpose-built gymnasium is for Shetland Gymnastics Club, with both Faroe and Menorca boasting two such facilities.
THE FOOTBALLING story of the day was the women’s teams victory over Hitra, which gave them a first ever win at the Island Games.
The two met at a baking hot Rendall pitch in the seventh/eighth play-off match, with the blues having earned immense credit for battling to third place in an extremely tough group.
They were looking to go one better and make more history on Thursday, with captain Rhea Nicolson leading by example to give them the lead.
Hitra equalised shortly after half-time, with Shetland missing a penalty, but when a second was awarded Josie Mitchell stepped up to convert and put the blues 2-1 up.
That was to be the final score, with the team celebrating excitedly at full-time as they became the first Shetland women’s team to win a match at the Island Games.
Meanwhile a much changed Shetland men’s football team were beaten by inter-county rivals Orkney in their games placing play-off on Thursday night.
With a hotly anticipated match between the two in nine days time, manager Neil Fenwick opted to give players like Josh Carroll, Euan Irvine and Rory Henderson a first start of the competition.
Jason Scott gave the reds the lead just nine minutes in, but the blues dominated the rest of the first half and deservedly levelled when Jack Clubb stooped to head home.
However a disastrous spell before half-time saw Shetland concede two goals in two minutes, one from a low corner kick and the other a defensive mix-up.
Finn Regan got a goal back late on with Shetland’s goal of the tournament, producing a neat piece of skill before unleashing a superb dipping strike beyond the Orkney keeper from 25 yards out.
That was to be the final score, with attentions for Shetland quickly turning to exacting revenge in the Milne Cup on 26 July in Lerwick.
HEATHER Hogg and Stacy Warren finished the golfing competition in the top half of the leaderboard after four rounds between Kirkwall and Stromness.
Hogg finished 15th after a final round of 84 took her to 330 for the week, with Warren ending her games with a score of 337.
Alison Laurenson shot 349, with Angelina Jamieson on 371.
Robert Geddes and Kieren Fraser similarly finished up in the top half of the men’s leaderboard after their four days working through Orkney’s courses.
Geddes ended with two final days of 77 to take him to 304 for the competition, with Fraser just behind him on 305 after two improved final rounds.
Mike Stein’s competition ended with a score of 308, while Joshua Morrison shot 314.
SAILOR Darren Forrest finished the International Laser Class Association (ILCA) 7 competition in ninth place after a net score of 90 for the week.
Team-mates Michael Tait and Willum Leask were also 10th and 11th in the ILCA 6 competition, scoring net 83 and 102 respectively, while Adrian Wishart had net 147.
Their performances put Shetland fifth in the overall team event, out of 10 islands, with a net score of 323 after a tricky week of sailing in Kirkwall Harbour.
SHETLAND’S squash players will finish up their round-robin team event with fixtures against Jersey and Gibraltar on Friday.
The team have lost their first three games to Cayman Islands and Orkney – both tipped to win medals in the event – and to Gibraltar.
Become a member of Shetland News
Shetland News is asking its readers to consider paying for membership to get additional perks:
- Removal of third-party ads;
- Bookmark posts to read later;
- Exclusive curated weekly newsletter;
- Hide membership messages;
- Comments open for discussion.
If you appreciate what we do and feel strongly about impartial local journalism, then please become a member of Shetland News by either making a single payment, or setting up a monthly, quarterly or yearly subscription.
Already a member? Sign in to hide this message.
