Rosie Gard with her bronze medal and a cuddly version of Island Games mascot, Selina the seal.
ISLAND GAMESAFTER competing at the last four Island Games, swimmer Rosie Gard finally got what she wanted — a medal.
Gard, who had earlier shaved eight seconds off her personal bests for the 400m and 800m freestyle, gained a stunning bronze in the women’s 100m individual medley final on Thursday.
Having qualified fourth with a personal best time of 1.10.38, she beat her new best time by nearly two seconds, finishing in 1.08.83.
There were tears and cheers all round as Rosie collected her medal. Afterwards, she was speechless. She said: "I've had medals in the relays but never an individual one, I can’t believe it!"
In all, more than 30 new Island Games records were set, including the 12-year record for the 200m breaststroke, recorded by Darren Mew in Jersey.
The original record of 2.19.89 was smashed by three seconds, by Pal Joensen, of the Faroe Islands, who recorded 2.16.06.
While Mikael Popov did not take part in order to rest an injury, Francois Hmida qualified and finished eighth.
Meanwhile, on the track, Natalie Badham finished sixth in the women’s discus and Joe Wade and Will Newnham both easily qualified for tomorrow’s 1,500m final.
Scott Lawson reached the last eight of the men’s singles table tennis tournament before being knocked out by Garry Dodd, of Guernsey.
Very little sailing happened today due to a lack of wind, while the golfers continue their quest for glory. The women are scoring steadily and currently lie third in the team rankings, while the men are also holding their own, Chris Reed and Mark Bell lying eighth and 11th with one round to go.
The women’s footballers earned themselves a place in the semi-finals of the comepetition after a 4-0 win over Hitra. Goals came from Lauren Crews, two, Emma Webb and Sarah Wright. They face Aland tomorrow for a place in Saturday’ final.
In the shooting, Roy Wade qualified for the final of the 50m prone, with a high score of 573, while Matt Reed came an agonising fifth, just two average marks off bronze, in the 10m air pistol.