Games across the ocean

THE Island Games will be held across the Atlantic for the first time in 2013. At yesterday's annual meeting of the International Island Games Association, Prince Edward Island and Bermuda were the only two members to put forward a bid to host them that year.

Bermuda bid for the Games 2011 Games, but were defeated by the Isle of Wight.

It is the first time that PEI has declared a formal interest.

And there is no lack of members wishing to host future Games.

As already reported in the Guernsey Press, Jersey wish to stage them in 2015, but they are likely to have three rivals.

Gotland, where the Games were held in 1999, the Faroe Islands, which hosted them in 1989, and Ynys Mon have all declared an intention to bid.

If unsuccessful, Gotland will try for 2017 and 2019, although in those years they will face competition from the newest member, Menorca.

There was good news for bowls and squash as the proposal to axe them from the list of Games sports was defeated.

There was not such good news for netball, however.

The Jersey IGA had proposed that it be added to the list, but that idea found little support.

And another interesting development was the news that competitors will be tested for drugs in Aland in two years' time.

It was announced after the annual meeting at the Shetland Games in 2005 that the association would sign the World Anti-Doping Agency code.

That meant that drug testing could have taken place in Rhodes, but the option was not taken up by the organisers.