Brilliant Bowditch

TWO golds and a bronze were Guernsey's rewards from their trip to Herm for the cross-country event last evening. Ann Bowditch proved her versatility in the various cycling disciplines by claiming her third individual gold of the Games and the second of the two available to her in mountain biking.

The Sarnian was determined to keep away from the Isle of Man's Jacqui Fletcher, who has been challenging Bowditch throughout the Games, and so she began at a high tempo.

The energy-sapping course could have easily made Bowditch pay for such tactics but her determination saw her through to claim first place.

Fletcher took silver and although Shanine Wray finished in third, her efforts did not earn her a medal due to the lack of entries. Amanda Briggs finished fourth.

The other gold came via the Guernsey men's team, made up of Chris Le Page, Nick Mann, Simon Rowe, Danny Shaw and Rob Smart.

They pushed the Isle of Wight into second place by a single point while the Isle of Man team, which included the individual gold medallist Elliot Baxter, took bronze.

Baxter was, once again, awesome, building up an unassailable lead very early on.

But there was individual success for Guernsey as Rob Smart went one better than his fourth place in the Isle of Man two years ago.

It was a courageous performance from Smart as he had to overcome cramp on Belvoir Hill on the penultimate lap.

'I thought I was going to be caught but when I got to the top, it had cleared,' he said.