'Great team effort' means Guernsey triumph again

GUERNSEY'S swimmers created a splash on Saturday as they clinched the inter-insular for the fourth year on the trot. The victory by a massive 48 points at Jersey's Les Quennevais Sports Centre reflects the shift in the balance of Channel Islands swimming as Jersey had previously held the Governor's Trophy for 15 straight years before Guernsey's current winning streak.

The Alison Frankland-headed team led from the start and they never looked like squandering their led as they won 22 of the 34 individual events and 11 of the 16 relays.

In the process the Sarnians claimed five out of the six gala records set on the day. The final score to Guernsey of 234-186 says it all.

'We're very pleased and delighted to walk away with the trophy,' said Frankland.

'We realised from the start that this was going to be our event. I can say that we witnessed some very fine performances across the age groups.

'Our very talented youngsters showed some great potential for the future.

'Winning the event for the last four years demonstrates the high standard that we have achieved on the island, which is a credit to all those involved.'

Guernsey's best performer on the day was Jeremy Osborne who won all four of his events in the 14-15 years age group. The Elizabeth College student swam the 100m freestyle in 54.20sec to set a new inter-insular record.

Tom Hollingsworth and Robyn Le Friec both also had a good meeting. The two Sarnians each won two events with Hollingsworth smashing his own record in the 14-15 years 100m backstroke with a time of 59.02.

Le Friec excelled in the 14-15 100m butterfly setting a time of 1-07.12 that broke Janine Taylor's 1986 record.

Top island swimmer Gail Strobridge and Matthew Butt, who has recently been selected onto the Great Britain junior elite training scheme, both came home with three golds each.

Joanna Laine along with Christine Hume, both won two races and Ian Hubert took

the men's 100m freestyle title in 53.90.

The younger age groups also had strong Guernsey showings as 12-year-old Victoria Parfit scored maximum points from her three events. Under-11s competitors Luke Belton and Joe Ogier secured a win each in the 100m breaststroke and 50m butterfly respectively.

The visitors took their momentum into the closing relay races and set new records in the 14-15 years boys' 4 x 50m medley and freestyle events with the team of Osborne, Edward Dickinson, Matthew Allen and Alexander Beaton taking the credit for this.

The senior men's team of Hollingsworth, Jonathon Le Noury, Ben Lowndes also claimed a new gala record in the 4 x 50m medley relay.

At the end of the competition, Frankland was impressed not just by individual performances but also by her team as a whole.

'There was an excellent team spirit,' she said.

'It was a great team effort. It was really quite amazing.'