A time to inspire for sport
NEWS on our back page today about how Steve Dawes, one of the island’s best athletes – and no mean cyclist either – over the past 20 years, intends to bow out of the sport after the home Island Games next summer, will be a scenario likely going through the head of many a local sporting champion.
For those sports people fortunate enough to be able to step down from their level when they choose, their home Games, in front of a home crowd, family and friends, seems an ideal time to say take their leave of the sports they have dedicated themselves to.
It is going to signal a changing of the guard in many sports, a time for new heroes to step forward.
The NatWest Island Games is just 13 months away and preparations are starting to buzz. It may be just 20 years since we last hosted, but these are very different times, with different and sometimes acute challenges to be faced.
Since 2003, the last time the island hosted, our sports and many islanders have benefited from the legacy of the Garenne Stand and facility at Footes Lane and the redevelopment of Beau Sejour, both of which happened in readiness for those Games.
Next year’s Games carries the tagline ‘Inspiring Islanders’.
We hope that the legacy of these Games will be more than simply finding the next generation of competitors, but will go on to benefit sport, and island life, more widely too.