The final goodbye to Gibraltar 2019 – now for Guernsey 2021

The Bailiff last night hosted a vin d’honneur for the returning Team Guernsey, which officially signalled the end of their Gibraltar 2019 NatWest International Island Games campaign, and Sir Richard Collas congratulated the Sarnian competitors, saying ‘I predicted that there would be medals, but I certainly did not expect that we would come back with 87 – I think that is a superb tally.’

He added: ‘Often I am asked what was my favourite moment, but there were so many enjoyable moments that I would not like to single out any.

‘However, there were two occasions when people did not turn up to present medals and I filled in and on each occasion I had the pleasure of presenting a medal to Guernsey, including on the final afternoon when I got to present the 4x400m relay gold to the Guernsey team. Those were nice moments from a personal point of view.’

Guernsey Island Games Association chairman Brian Allen and Giorgio Daboni of sponsor Utmost also congratulated the team on their endeavours before Wayne Bulpitt of the Guernsey 2021 organising committee promised the athletes that ‘you will be at the centre of our plan’ for those Games in two years’ time.