Athlete's passport arrives just in time for Games flight

By the evening, he was on a flight to Gotland along with another 96 athletes and competitors for this year's NatWest Island Games.

The 16-year-old was a last-minute call-up after Cameron Chalmers pulled out to target the World Championships.

'I only found out two days ago and I didn't have a passport,' Mr Curtis said.

'I got an express passport and it arrived at 11am this morning. It was all very last minute.'

He will be competing in the 4 x 400m relay at the games in Sweden.

Guernsey Island Games Association director Karen Archenoul is one of the management team organising getting about 270 competitors and supporters to the Swedish island.

There were some problems with a chartered aircraft, which was held up in Dublin.

The last of three flights did not leave until about 6pm, nearly three hours behind schedule.

A private aircraft also burst a tyre while landing, closing Guernsey's runway for around 10 minutes from about 10.40am, leading to further delays.

See Monday's Guernsey Press for full coverage of the opening ceremony and the first day of competition, plus regular updates on guernseypress.com