Andy Frost with his Island Games hammer gold medal.
ANDY Frost struck gold on the first day of competition in the 2009 Island Games in Aland, missing out on the Island Games hammer record by just 25cm.
Frost was 13 metres clear of his rivals in the competition at the Wiklof Holding Arena, throwing his best distance in the last round, reaching 68.75m.
He had previously broken the games record at every attempt, reaching 69m in Rhodes.
Fellow IW competitor Callum Woon far exceeded expectations by coming fifth, smashing his personal best by throwing 46.23m.
And the good news continued when Emily Young and Faith Norster both comfortably qualified for the semi-finals of the 100m, Faith recording a new personal best of 12.69. Sam Ratcliffe also reached the next stage of the men's 200m, coming second in his heat with a time of 22.30.
However, there was disappointment at Bredmo shooting range, when the pistol team of Anthony Elgar and Matt Reed twice missed out on medals.
The IW pair came fifth in the 50m free pistol team competition and were sixth in the 25m centre fire pistol team final.
Meanwhile, there were early exits for Island players in the tennis team competitions, with the men's and women's teams both going out in the first round to Isle of Man and Guernsey respectively.
In the table tennis, the IW team lost their crunch clash with Jersey in the team event, losing 5-2 while the badminton team were beaten 5-0 by Greenland in their opening group match.
Footballers fared little better with the men's team losing 2-0 to Rhodes in a fiery encounter, despite the IW having the majority of chances.
The women's team lost 4-1 to the Isle of Man, Tash Miller scoring the side's consolation.