Guernsey Press

Guernsey's golden start as Games get under way

THE NatWest Island Games kicked off in style this weekend – and it did not take long for Team Guernsey to win their first gold medal in Jersey.

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Hundreds of spectators were at Howard Davis Park on Saturday evening for a short, but spectacular, opening ceremony and among the thousands of competitors present was the majority of Guernsey's 240-strong team.

The flag bearer for the Sarnian team was Steve Yates, who begins his 10th Games as an archer later today, while the water carrier was teenager Max Thornton, who competed in yesterday afternoon's triathlon.

By then, Guernsey had already won their first gold medal and briefly gone top of the medal table after their men's half-marathon team of Lee Merrien, Mike Wilesmith and David Emery secured glory in the first event of the week.

For Mr Yates, though, it could well be the opening ceremony that he remembers most fondly, as he described the experience as the 'proudest moment of his career' and a 'great honour to be chosen'.

Another man feeling similar sentiments was Mr Thornton, who was making his Games debut.

'It was a really exciting thing to be able to do and an awesome experience for me,' he said.

'Hopefully, this will be the first of a few Games for me and having my event on the first day of competition is great too because it means I haven't really got the chance to get too nervous about it.'

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